Earth Hour
By pmcepe
@pmcepe (194)
Philippines
March 30, 2009 10:32am CST
It was our first experience to observe Earth Hour last March 28. We switched off all our lights and electric fans and went to our front yard. I was disappointed that my neighbors seemed unaware or unwilling to make the 1 hour lights off. My neighbor across had switched off their lights but after a few minutes some visitors arrived so they swtched on their lights again.
Did you observe Earth hour? Why or why not?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@ip5217 (1655)
• Philippines
31 Mar 09
Yes we did observe this historical event. In fact, I was asleep the whole time. (hehehe) Seriously, this is just an initiative reminding all of us that earth hour is not just for an hour but a year-round practice that all of us should take seriously. Global warming is getting worse every single day. We should all wake up and take part in saving our mother nature for our children. Let's not be selfish. They, too, have the right to enjoy the beauty of the earth.
1 person likes this
@pmcepe (194)
• Philippines
1 Apr 09
Amen to that. I envy you! asleep already at 8:30, without electric fan/aircon for 1 hour! Seriously though, I agree that it's everybody's business to take care of this planet, because there's no other place we could go (while still alive, that is). Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
@coldmoon (1088)
• France
30 Mar 09
I agree with the idea of Earth Hour, but I disagree with the way they carry out it. They burned candles to create light. I think candle is also, even more harmful to the environment.
But I still took part in this event, I just didn't touch a candle. Many people think that it's only a drop in ocean, but if there're milliards of drops in the world, it's another stage.
1 person likes this
@pmcepe (194)
• Philippines
1 Apr 09
I agree that the program could use some improvements. I was also surprised that there were shows during the "lights out" supposedly to raise awareness, but the shows were also using electricity. Well, maybe they would reason that the show would have been done, with or without lights off, so at least some power were conserved somehow. But at least because of the shows more people learned about Earth Hour, and hopefully they will do their share to take care of mother nature
Nice response.Thank you.
@rsa101 (38189)
• Philippines
1 Apr 09
We participated last year when Manila first joined in the move to earth hour. And this time our company joined in too. They even made us sign this large billboard and place on the facade of the building. I was in a beach resort when that happened with my wife. The resort owner did participate and they turned their lights off as well that is why we just stayed outside and enjoyed the night scene. I appreciated once again how beautiful the stars are at night without lights. They seem to have been brighter.
@pmcepe (194)
• Philippines
6 Apr 09
I did not know that Manila joined last year's earth hour observance,(I was on the move a lot at the time and probably did not pay much attention to the news) I'm glad I learned about it this time. I wish though that next time it would be scheduled during full moon not new moon as what happened this year.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
@trickiwoo (2702)
• United States
30 Mar 09
I purposefully did not participate in Earth Hour this year. Instead, I decided I was going to limit my electricity use every single day. I am getting in the habit of turning off lights when I'm not using them, not leaving chargers plugged into the walls when they aren't in use, using powerstrips for my computers and tvs and such and turning off the strips when they aren't in use, etc. I think that doing that on a regular basis is much more important and will make much more of a difference than turning your lights off for 1 hour each year. The purpose of Earth Hour is to raise awareness, and I agree with that. I just feel that with Earth Hour people only think about their electricity use once a year and that is not a good thing. And I also agree with a lot of the points benny128 made.
1 person likes this
@pmcepe (194)
• Philippines
1 Apr 09
Good for you that you are already conserving, which is not new to us either. As you said the Earth Hour was to raise awareness. It was more of telling others to join our efforts take care of mother nature. If people become aware not only of the savings in terms of bills, but moreso of the environment, they will not shut off their electricity one hour a year only, but will have conscious effort to practice it. I know that I did not have an overnight conversion, it was started in the 80s when our office imposed power saving programs. I taught my kids to do it too, and its like second nature to them now.
Thanks for sharing your views.
