I’ll be turning out the lights tomorrow night after all. Goodness knows we had enough power outages last spring that I learned to spend time without, anyhow.
When I first heard about the event, I didn’t think I’d bother with it. I’m not very faddish; I don’t like doing things on a clock; and my personal energy reduction for that hour makes precious difference in the end. I suppose it was seeing that my parents intended to be involved that caused me to re-think matters. I can imagine them and my siblings getting excited and involved in thinking about environmental impact, and that mental picture motivated me to reconsider.
Really, I’m not that green. I try in all the easy ways: I compost, use cotton grocery bags almost exclusively, use CFLs when appropriate, eat as many locally sourced foods as I can, and so forth. I consider this a decent start. On the other hand, I’m considering buying a car within the next two years, and moving into a larger, brighter, less-insulated apartment. I’ve let the thermostat creep up to 20 degrees a lot lately. I use conventional electricity, which, like most of Nova Scotia’s power, probably comes from coal, and heat is often from oil.
I have been wanting to learn about my reliance on electricity, in part to determine what I actually need, versus what I have habituated myself to. In the end, perhaps that’s the best reason I have for participating in Earth Hour. After all, during the last prolonged power outage, I confess I walked to the nearest still-lit pub, and sat under electric lights with a couple of pints of Guinness.
