Saturday, March 28, 2009

Earth Hour

Just wanted to remind everyone to turn out their lights for Earth Hour! How will you be spending your hour? We're heading to the great outdoors in hopes of witnessing the yearly salamander mating migration. :)

13 comments:

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Thanks for the reminder, Debi. I had forgotten this was tonight.

CJ said...

So, I have to ask - what is the point, exactly? What does sitting in the dark for an hour do or even prove?

I'm not against conservation but gestures like this seem to me to be on the same level as those pink ribbons everyone was wearing for awhile. They make you feel good but what, exactly, did they accomplish?

cjh

Debi said...

Trish,
Okay, nothing to do with Earth Hour, but have I ever told you how much I love your avatar? Your smiling face always makes me smile! :)

CJ,
Possibly making people realize how small, individual actions add up to big ones. Thousands of tons of carbon dioxide that won't be going into the air for that hour. Feeling positive and optimistic and hopeful as opposed to negative and pessimistic and bitter.

Literary Feline said...

I haven't decided it I want to read or just use the battery on my laptop and go completely electricity-less in the house. That might be the better option. It's still about an hour and a half away where I live.

Anonymous said...

I'm hosting a giveaway on my blog in honor of Earth Hour, come enter!

The hubby, the dogs and I will all be taking a nice, long, much needed walk from 830-930!

CJ said...

Debi -

So, my questioning the usefulness of the gesture makes me negative, pessimistic and bitter? Hmmmm. Got it. Thanks.

cjh

Ali said...

We had a great time doing this! We lit a bunch of candles and danced to music. Didn't use much less electricity than usual because the computer and stereo were on, but it was a blast to do something different, and pretty cool to know that people around the world had done the same.

serendipity_viv said...

I so forgot about this. I feel really bad as I had planned to participate.

Debi said...

Literary Feline,
Whatever you chose, I hope you had fun!

Amanda,
That sounds like a great way to spend an hour! Hope you all had an enjoyable time!

CJ,
You sounded to me like you were trying to belittle me for participating. Think it's stupid...fine, don't participate. Write about it on your blog. But come here and treat me like I'm "wrong" because I don't think like you, then I think I have the right to comment. Maybe I totally read you wrong, and if so I apologize, but you sounded thoroughly condescending to me. The pessimistic, negative, and bitter...that would be how I would feel if I purposefully chose NOT to participate. As for anyone else, I can't predict their feelings.

Ali,
That sounds like a lot of fun! :)

Scrap Girl,
I almost forgot, too. But even if I had, I think some good would have been done in our house. Just the hype of it alone has reinforced to the boys how important it is to turn out lights and whatnot when they leave a room. They tend to get lazy about that. Sometimes I feel like I'm on constant "electricity" patrol. :)

Ana S. said...

I feel bad because I turned the lights off, but stayed on the laptop :( I unplugged it, though! I wanted to participate more properly, but I had stupid work deadlines. Witnessing the yearly salamander mating migration sounds absolutely perfect :)

CJ said...

Debi -

My question was exactly what it was. I wanted to know why people were taking a step that I don't see as being particularly meaningful. I did not mean to belittle you for taking part. I truly believe that everyone has a right to do whatever they want to do, about whatever causes they want to back. I wanted to give you my take on the whole thing so you knew where I was coming from and I was looking for an explanation of what I was missing.

Could I have worded it better? Probably, but that was the way my thoughts on the subject were running - what is the point of the entire thing?

I'm sorry to have stepped on your toes.

cjh

Susan said...

Debi: we turned everything off but one tv and vcr and we lit candles and watched a movie together. Holly-Anne asked about saving energy (they'd been talking about it at school too), and they enjoyed the whole family snuggling together on the sofa set. We ended up keeping the candles burning and leaving everything off except for one light in the kitchen, for the rest of the night! It's a small gesture, but in my long-running battle to be more energy efficient and green, it seems to me to be important to do it, when we can, at the same time everyone else is too, just to show: yes, we can, together, make a difference. :-D nice reminder, Debi!

Fyrefly said...

I spent mine at a candlelit cocktail party, but what I really want to know is: Did you see any cool salamanders? I think I've already missed the salamander run here - I didn't get out on the first warm rainy night, and now I think it's mostly over.