Earth Hour

[aurillia]

Can you believe I only heard about this today? Earth Hour, started in Sydney in 2007, has gone global, and Toronto is participating! It's voluntary, of course, so most people will ignore it. Maybe it's the neighbourhood I live in (steady-well-paying-job 30-something yuppies with small kids), but the impression I get is that people only care when it

Comments

perhaps all of Vancouver Island

[newwaytowrite]

could participate for that hour with the help from Mother Nature. We are accustomed to power outages. Had one Sunday when many people would of been cooking a ham or perhaps a turkey for friend and family. It of course would be hard to stop people from starting up their generators because when we lose the power it is not merely a half hour or so before it comes on.

Re: perhaps all of Vancouver Island

[aurillia]

It's certainly nicer to have control over when the power goes out! That's shitty timing though :(

Where my parents live (in the country) gets blackouts a lot too. Usually from winter storms, so we had light from the fire, and we would light candles everywhere and use the torches sparingly. But I always remember being a bit bored, because of course it always happens at night! Why do storms like the night-time so much?

night

[newwaytowrite]

time storms are more atmospheric and so Hollywood.

Re: night

[aurillia]

Definitely atmospheric. I've never thought of them as Hollywoody though, so I still enjoy them :)

[betsybookwyrm]

My family is planning on breaking out the candles that are buried in a cupboard somewhere and playing card games. I don't think we'll be able to limit it to an hour...

But my brother is having difficulty understanding why it would be against the spirit of the thing to spend that hour on his Game Boy, or on a laptop that's running on batteries. He's a silly one.

[aurillia]

That's definitely cheating! I can't imagine preferring to play a computer game on my own to playing a board game with others, but that's just me :)

[kat_nic]

That sounds like a good idea, but I dopubt I'll be able to convince my super-conservative dad to participate. I just manage what I can in little ways. Like reminding everyone at work to throw their aluminum cans in the recycle bin (most everyone didn't, which pissed me off, otherwise why even have one? And trying to get the management to add a recycle bin for paper and plastic, as well).

And it's kind of funny, you posting about this, but just today I bought a new cat litter that's made of recycled newspaper. I've been using Feline Pine, but decided to give this one a whirl.

[aurillia]

We have the separate bins - and a green bin (for compost) - at work, but I've still had to help people understand what goes in what. It seems pretty obvious to me that you can't recycle food, and that cans are recyclable, and that teabags go in the compost. *sigh*

I've heard of that kind of cat litter. We use cheap gravel-like stuff. It just goes straight into the green bin. Do you have a compost at home?

[kat_nic]

Yeah, my dad has one. He's the one with the green thumb in my family, but it's more that he just wants the yard to look nice, and not that he gets any real satisfaction from seeing things grow (at least, I think). Me, I'm like Mom. Everytime I get something green I end commiting plant manslaughter.

[aurillia]

I love gardening, but I haven't been able to do any since I left Tasmania. Which was in 2002. We have a tiny backyard (no direct access) which the people who live downstairs let their dogs run around in. Consequently, it's pretty much a yard of piss and dog poo and the occasional weed.

[littleblueghost]

So you can't just turn off all the fuses to your place???

That would be my *cheats* way of turning off all appliances without going around and turning off all the switches :D

I suppose I could participate. Or I could just go to sleep...

[aurillia]

That would be easier, but it's a rental, and there's only the one fuse-box for the entire house, and there are four flats in the house. I don't think the other tenants would be very impressed.

[littleblueghost]

You mean you can't enforce them to participate in Earth Hour :P

I guess they wouldn't be impressed at all!!

[aurillia]

not a chance :D

[bookish_nerd]

Sounds like a great idea! I'll definitely try to participate.

I'm amused by the silly brother wanting to spend the time playing on a Game Boy or laptop XD
As observed, there are plenty of other possibilities ;D

[aurillia]

It's pretty, what's the word, symptomatic? Children in general don't use their imaginations so much anymore, it's sad.