I found that it hasn’t been as noticeably advertised this year than it was last year (then again, last  year was the first year that the international Earth Hour occurred). While last year, a lot of cities took part and a lot of people, they measured how much energy was saved in that one hour across the world. This event, for those who don’t know, is organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF – the organization with the panda for the logo) and occurs on the last Saturday of March at 8:30pm, local time. This year, the United Nations headquarters (in New York City) is participating, as well as several television stations which will stop broadcasting for that one hour. And depending on what city you’re in, your local city hall could be participating and many restaurants also take part in this and give their diners a candlelit dinner.

This year, the weather’s not that great, so I’m unlikely to go anywhere. Plus, my family’s not big on environmental activism and all that. But we do pretty well, even without consciously thinking about things. For example: reusing plastic bags, using reusable shopping bags, using the contents of my lovely tea bags for fertilizer (for the flowers), using energy saving light bulbs (which my father argues takes more energy to turn on than to leave on for the hour – I still need to check if he’s correct on that). So while my house isn’t going to be in complete and total darkness, there are still things to do.

My plans for the somewhat symbolic hour includes crocheting… crocheting… and more crocheting. I’m planning on making myself a pin cushion (Clay commented to me that I should get one, after I’d written that blog entry about stabbing myself with beading needles) and possibly a new scarf as well… We shall see. I was going to sew something, but then I remembered that I’d be stupid to attempt to sew something in the dark (or even with limited light, considering how stupid that would be) and plus, my sewing machine requires electricity (fancy that!). But I might read… maybe, depending on the lighting. I’d bead something, but then… losing beads…? With limited natural light…? I’d end up spending hours after picking up all of the beads that roll away or drop. Or I could just nap for the hour, it’d give a whole new meaning to ‘turning off the lights for Earth Hour’.

I blogged about Earth Hour 2008 here, here and here.

Questions

1. Are you turning off your lights for Earth Hour 2009? (If it’s already past the hour where you are, did you?)
2. What do you plan to do for Earth Hour/What did you do for Earth Hour?
3. What is one organization that you support that you feel doesn’t get enough recognition?

My answers

1. Yes… Sort of.
2. Crafting. And reading. It’s my excuse not to work on my biology report (which needs to be typed up!).
3. Room to Read – a non-profit organization that promotes literacy by building schools, libraries and computer labs for developing countries. It’s also the primary organization that NaNoWriMo supported for three years (2004-2007) until they decided to put their money towards their own organization and their Young Writers Program. (I’m kinda big on the whole literacy thing, in case you haven’t noticed.)