Comments on: Will You Observe Earth Hour?

By: Juls

Juls — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:08:41 +0000

I think it takes ‘holidays’ such as these to make people take notice, and to lead to bigger and better solutions instead of just lights out once a year. It is also good for children to be exposed (way to go, Mamabird!) because their generation will grow up with a better understanding of the need to conserve and invest in alternate energy sources.

By: Dim The Lights For Earth Hour

Dim The Lights For Earth Hour — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:55:22 +0000

[...] Find more ideas for Earth Hour activities at Tree Hugging Family. [...]

By: Peggy

Peggy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:06:49 +0000

I think events like Earth Day were necessary back in the day. Now the media covers environmental issues regularly and environmentalists don’t have to fight quite as much as they used to in order to get attention. Some might disagree with me on that, but I see environmental stories every day on mainstream news outlets.

Still, we have a long way to go and I think it doesn’t hurt to raise awareness on a national or international level as much as possible.

Mamabird, I think the lights off thing is symbolic. Sort of like lighting a candle maybe.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:14:01 +0000

I think that my issue with events like this and even things like Earth Day is that it creates a “being green is a novelty” sort of feeling. Like yahoo! Let’s be green today! Instead of making green more an every day reality it makes it a “holiday” if that makes sense.

On the other hand, I was discussing this with Peggy, and I also think that days like ED can be good in that if one person decides that this is the day they change, it’s worthwhile. It’s a tough call for me. I go back and fourth. Do we call green out and make it special or make it how we simply live. Egad.

By: MamaBird

MamaBird — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:27:11 +0000

Kids notwithstanding, I read the Earth Hour FAQs just last night (the page is not loading at the moment or I’d look it up for you) and they concede that the coal fired electricity plants already are supplying the grid with power so it doesn’t actually save energy to turn the lights off all at once?! So, possibly nice symbolic gesture for the small ones, but agreed that it’s not a dark green earth shaking move.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:16:07 +0000

You make a good point about it being a decent learning opportunity for kids. I’m still not participating – but your comment does make the event seem a little more worthwhile.

By: MamaBird

MamaBird — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:17:34 +0000

I love band aids and so do my kids! Just kidding, I think this will be a nice teaching moment for my 4 year old so we are going to celebrate an hour earlier and will hope that it’s dark enough to make an impression on her when we light our (soy) candles.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:36:37 +0000

I won’t be observing earth hour. I hate band aid solutions.