Last year at this time I was busy planning for Earth Hour. My friends and I had been talking about having a dessert potluck and Earth Hour seemed like a good opportunity. I emailed out the invites, cleaned the apartment, got out the board games – after all if you are going to turn out the lights, having the TV on seems a little counterproductive. I thought we were all fine and good until the day of, when I realized that, not being much of a candle person myself, I had a total of three candles in my entire apartment. Now, I have a bit of a reputation amongst my friends. I tend to call up with strange requests: can you bring a chair? Can you bring your favourite pair of shoes? This time it was “can you bring candles?”
As usual, everyone came through. One of my friends even showed up with cookies that she had iced to make them look like the Earth, an impressive feat from my less than skilled baking perspective. It was early enough that we never needed to turn the lights on. We just lit the candles once the sun had gone down. We sat and played what was one of the more painful games of Trivial Pursuit. It went on forever, until we were changing the rules to make it easier for someone to win. We also ate a lot of sugar. Earth cookies, chocolate chip crumble, lemon squares to name just a few.
So what have I learned for this year?
Many of the candles that we used were made of paraffin wax, which uses petroleum. Although, I wouldn’t go buy new candles just for the event, I am trying to be more careful with the rare one I do buy to make sure that it is made out of beeswax or soy.
Less sugar! Five people and five desserts is enough to make everyone a little bit loopy before the night is done.
Board games are good, but this year I’m going to try something different. I’m trying to see how many of my friends I can get down to City Hall plaza for the City event.
I think it will be cool to see all the lights go out (and that way I don’t have to do any cleaning). We will also definitely make sure that we use public transit or carpool to contribute even more.
The most important thing I have learned though is that it isn’t that hard to make little changes. In 2008, my power usage in March was at its highest at 356 kWh. In 2009 I was at 230. Since March I have kept my power usage below this level each and every month. And I can tell you that I’m not sitting in the dark, but I am thinking about the choices I make.
How do you plan to make every hour Earth Hour?