Shining a Light on Earth Hour - this Saturday at 8:30 pm local time

This is the second year that I will be participating in Earth Hour.  Earth Hour is happening all over the world at 8:30 PM local time this Saturday, March 28th.  During this hour of time, we are supposed to turn off our lights for 60 minutes - as a show of our commitment to finding solutions to stop climate change.  You can learn more - about Earth Hour and about Earth Hour events happening near you - at www.earthhourus.org. 

My participation will take place at my "other job" - I run a youth program and will have forty young people and adults with me, and we will be in the middle of our Saturday night dance when 8:30 arrives.  This makes turning lights off easy, because they will have already been turned off at 7 PM so that kids can dance and limbo and not have to see that the old fuddy duddy chaperones are watching to ensure that everyone is safe, dancing appropriately, and not wandering off.

I think that Earth Hour is a great way to raise awareness of climate change issues, and sitting in the dark for an hour can give everyone time to think about letters-to-the-editor, letters to elected officials, or other ways that we can share our concern with others around us, especially with those who are in a position to institute policies that will make a difference.

So remember, set your alarm for 8:30 PM on Saturday night, turn out the lights, and if it's nice outside, why not head out to look up at the stars.  With all of the lights out around you, hopefully you will have a clear view of the night sky. 

Let us know how you used your Earth Hour this year.  Your hour in the dark can help to shed light on the important issue of climate change.

Beth

Comments

[Gordon]

Great photos but where's Augusta Maine? As pretty as our State House is, would be nice to have the lights out for the sake of the planet once in a while.

[Beth]

We did participate in Earth Hour, and since we were having a dance at camp, the lights were off during that time anyway, so I am not sure how dramatically we illustrated this event to our youth. But, a coworker sent me a link to this Boston Globe article that had some incredibly cool photos of landmarks and what they looked like before and during Earth Hour (you click on the photos to see the lights dim). Check it out at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html AMAZING!

[Janet]

How did it go, did you actually do this?

[Beth Dimond]

Thanks for your comment, Sheila. I am glad you are enjoying the blog and emails. Please feel free to let us know if there are topics of interest that you would like to see us blog about.

Have a great afternoon!
Beth

[Sheila]

Thanks for letting us know about it. I enjoy NRCM's emails and blogs.