March 29, 2008
Take Out Your Put-Outers!
I wish I had posted this earlier, but here it is and it’s very exciting!
Earth Hour is a movement that started last year in Sydney, Australia. Essentially it was like Dumbledore had taken his put-outer and turned out all the lights for a whole hour. The purpose of this action was so that individuals could come together and do something about global warming. What they accomplished was nothing short of amazing: in just this one hour they save equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road.
One year later, Earth Hour is a global movement, with cities across the world agreeing to take out their put-outers and turn off all the lights for just one hour. And it happens tonight, March 29 from 8 pm to 9 pm. Further, although a put-outer is an amazing magical tool, what’s even more amazing is that the only actual “put-outer” in this scenario is a countless number of individuals acting on a collective intention to turn out their lights for one hour!
Even people whose cities aren’t participating are still taking part! It’s amazing how one little action like turning of your lights for an hour can add up to be something where we can all share the intention of our inner light to both celebrate and wake up the world.
And what will you do when your lights are off? Here’s some ideas from Earth Hour.
(Also, If you’re getting this and it’s already been 8 pm where you live, so long as it’s still March 29 somewhere in the world, it’s 8 pm where someone lives! So put your lights out for an hour and join THEM! 
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Alright everyone! Let’s take out those put-outers and light up the world by turning off the lights!
Here’s a video with more info.
Feagil
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It sounds cool, isn’t it?
But I quess you know nothing about the operation of electricity systems. You can’t tell most of the power plants to turn off at 8.00 and than on at 9.00! They had to cooperate with this idiotic switc-off switc-on of yours and it’s not at all energy(or CO2)-saving. Like when you break and then accelarate with your car. so when you say “in just this one hour they save equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road” its false. As power plants can’t stop in a minute (or 5 or 15), its just equivalent to place a 30km/h table on the motorway, then 130, then 30 again. The most useless and environment-damaging idea.
If you want to do something buy energy-saving bulbs and a new refrigerator (or dont use fridge at all! The most CO2-saving thing, except of getting rid of your computer).
The worst is that this people feel content “oh, I just did something for the Earth” – its like serving/eating whale soup on a “save the whales” party.
andrew
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Feagil: I appreciate your passion on behalf of environmentalism. This was a global movement that reminded all of us to be more mindful about how we use electricity. And that kind of mesaging, where everyone can take action and be reminded of the little things they can do in their daily lives is a very powerful thing.
I do agree with you that energy-saving bulbs are one of those things and hopefully this hour of turning off the lights helped remind people of that.
Also, please note that this project did not come from the HPA, we were just one of presumably tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of organizations and online news outlets that were talking about this. Lastly, the HPA is meant to be a safe environment for all. To criticize and question what we put out is fine…but to call something “idiotic” does not serve the purpose of a safe environment where we can respect each other and feel comfortable speaking our minds.
That said, I once again appreciate your passion and your wish to do more than one hour for the environment. Surely the environment needs more than one hour of conscience thought from every individual! So thanks for reminding us of this!