Earth Hour

Kate Pinkerton


What will you be doing on March 26, 2009 at 8:30 pm?

I will be turning off my lights. I will be part of one of the biggest environmental movements. I am going to push for change.

So, what are you doing?

Hopefully you will also participate in Earth Hour, one hour when the entire world will turn off their lights. Major landmarks such as the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and Rome's Colessium will go dark as we take a stance on our environmental future. This started 2 years ago in Australia where 2.2 million people turned off their lights, and it grew last year with 50 million people across the world turning off their lights for an hour. This year, Earth Hour states that their goal is 1 Billion people, and so far a large amount of people have committed.

This Earth Hour is especially important because turning off your lights is like a vote for the Earth, according to Earth Hour.org. This vote matters in the upcoming decision at the conference in Copenhagen that will decide the future international policies on Environmental standards and regulations. We need to show the world we care, and that we want strong Environmental Policies.

Last year had some dramatic results. Obviously many more people participated-2.2 to 50 million people is a huge jump.

The White House obviously did not participate in 2008 and it will be interesting to see if Obama convinces the White House to participate. Google even participated last year. According to the 2008 video, Sydney's original goal was to reduce energy use by 5% during the hour, and they reduced it by more than 10%! If Earth Hour reaches its goal, the environmental effects within that hour will be amazing!

Sources such as the Rebel Yell suggest many different ways of experiencing the hour. One suggestion is having a candlelight party with card games. Candlelight is something that people do not experience enough. While it is a slight fire hazard, especially if the card games involve alcohol, the atmosphere that candlelight creates is magical. Many other fun things happen in the dark- flashlight tag, hide and seek, sleeping...etc.

Colleges such as Ohio University are pledging to turn off their lights for the hour. This is in their favor since OU's price per hour of keeping the lights on is $686. American University would benefit a great deal in this economic crisis simply by encouraging environmental practices like conserving energy. Eco-Sense, AU's Environmental Club, has made an effort to convince students to participate in Earth Hour, but we could definitely make a stronger one.

Earth Hour obviously doesn't mean that we should keep our lights off all the time. It just is something to show that a lot of people care about the environment. There are clean energy alternatives to keeping the world lit, but it's also important to remember to turn off lights when they are not needed. Wasting energy is a huge source of pollution.

It's weird that something so simple can have such a large effect. It has grown so much that it is obvious that environment is important to a lot of people, cities, organizations, and businesses. This is the kind of push we need to show representatives going to Copenhagen this fall that we want environmental progress in the world.

If you are interested, there is a facebook group you can join!