Can you turn off your lights for just one hour?

Amy Gates — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:11:45 -0500

This Saturday, March 29, 2008, people from around the world will join together for Earth Hour 2008 and turn off their lights from 8 to 9 p.m. (your local time) to reduce greenhouse gases and raise awareness about global warming.

Last year Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney, Australia event where 2.2
million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for
one hour. This year it’s getting worldwide attention and millions of
people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including
Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv, will
unite and turn off their lights for Earth Hour.

If your kids are still up at 8 p.m., you can make Earth Hour into a fun family event.

Light some candles (out of reach of the kids)
Have a “camp out” in your living room
Play a game like Hide and Go Seek
Talk about your day
Talk with your children about why you are turning off your lights for an hour
Try to do their normal bedtime routine in the dark or by candlelight (We did a dry run of this Monday night and Ava loved it!)
Go outside and look at the stars
Just enjoy the time together

And if your kids are NOT still up at 8 p.m. (lucky!), then by all
means, enjoy a nice quiet candle-lit evening with your significant
other. I won’t give you a list of activities. Surely you can figure
something out. (Makes me wonder if we’ll see an “Earth Hour baby boom”
9 months from now.) ;)

Will you pledge to turn off your lights for just one hour?

Sign up for Earth Hour and then tell a friend or two. Together, our small actions can make a big difference.

Earth Hour doesn’t have to end at 9 p.m. on Saturday, you can incorporate it into your everyday life by doing little things like:

turn off lights when you leave a room;
switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs;
turn off appliances when not in use;
unplug things like cell phone chargers, the toaster, microwave and TV when they aren’t in use;
use less hot water;
switch to green power.

Every little bit helps to reduce global warming.

Hope you’ll join me and millions of others in the dark on Saturday! Don’t forget to sign up so you are officially counted.

Amy
Crunchy Domestic Goddess
BlogHers Act contributing editor

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Can you turn off your lights for just one hour?