Earth Hour 2009

I only became aware of Earth Hour 2009 a few days before the actual event this year. (Though last year I didn't hear about it until after the fact, so I suppose a few days is better than nothing!) For those of you unfamiliar with the event, Earth Hour took place this past Saturday night at 8:30 PM local time. For an hour, beginning at 8:30, people around the world turned off their lights. Simple, right?

It's an initiative to bring attention to global warming. Without putting forth my own personal beliefs regarding global warming, I'll just say that I'm all about frugality. Why use unnecessary energy? Why use unnecessary anything? Having the lights off for that one hour reset my internal energy clock, I suppose you could say. I've noticed myself being more aware the past day or so when we have unneeded lights or other electrical appliances on. It saves energy, it saves money.

Jack's not quite sure about this whole candlelight business...

Personally, I loved having the lights off for an hour. I even did some knitting in the semi-dark! (Many candles shed a surprising amount of light...) It was cozy and intimate and comfortable. What about you? Did you participate in Earth Hour?

There's a Flickr pool set up over here so you can see photos from around the world.

Comments

[jessica]

I loved the idea of earth hour...really I'm thinking it will be a weekly change here.

[lydia]

I love this idea too - although it's a shame I didn't hear of it earlier - would have been nice to see if you could notice anything changing in the city - according to the papers big buildings like the eiffel tower and burj-al-arab hotel among others switched their lights off too...

I like the idea of making it a weekly habit too though - switching off the TV can sometimes make our flat suddenly feel much nicer and calmer, and I imagine switching all the lights off must be similar. Plus candlelight is always good - love the photos in this post!