Earth hour started in Australia in 2007 when 2.2 million individuals and over 2000 business turned off their lights for an hour to challenge the increasing problems of climate change.
Over the years more people, more countries and finally Governments started to join in with this. Though has it made a direct effect? If you listen to David Cameron he says he supports this and is intent upon becoming known as the Greenest Government this county has had to date. So why then does his government keep coming up with daft ideas? I know the forest sell-offs were reversed but “we” have just decided to go to war in Libya, supposedly to help with freedom but coincidently in a country that is oil rich. I am not a fan of this move as I am not convinced that the Government is being honest in its dealings with it. We need to hunt out renewable sources not kill people to retain old and non renewable methods. Ok an over simplistic view perhaps and I am sure that there can be debates on all sides forever about it being more than oil, but you get my point?
So rather than being a clone and just thinking “I know I’ll do my hours bit” on the 26th why not do what Earth hour are hoping for and make greater stands with more pronounced changes? In this house we try and turn lights off, things aren’t generally left on stand-by and we don’t use the car for just a five min trip. But how can we improve our impact on the world? We already recycle and try hard to eat within seasons so that the food we buy is only from local areas (max 30 miles) the exception to this is Littleuns bananas, a greedier monkey you’ll never meet!
Well we have decided that although the lamps use energy bulbs we don’t really need them, so have for the next month decided to pack away all lamps and see if we can live without that form of light. We have chosen to block the switch on the fridge to stop the small waste through that and instead of using ordinary torches we are starting to change them (as they break) into wind up torches. Lastly Littleun and I have agreed to cut back on the use of the TV and radios. Instead of just putting it on then wandering out of the room to switch the radio on in the one we end up in we are now going to choose one or the other and actually turn it off if not in the room as well as cutting out the dross which really is wasting an hour at least of our lives each day!
So what will you do? If not a lot then do at least do the hours switch off and make the lantern in support (follow link here). But if you can do more, then please do, little things will lead to bigger savings if we all do it.
2 comments:
This is very inspiring. I've been seeing the Earth Hour ads all over here and facebook and have been trying to decide what to do. It's early in the year so it shall be dark out by 8:30PM and this house gets little outside light as it is. While I don't mind sitting and possibly reading by candle light, the other two in the house will not...if they're/we're here of course.
I currently hound the rest of the house for recycling as they seem to hit the garbage can first >.< and try my best to keeps unnecessary lights an electronics of any sort turned off - this is mainly just me though....Can't touch other peoples stuff, which makes is annoying seeing my 360 and the father-in-laws PC always on when I walk by (I turn my 360 off tho as it is mine and is dying from over-use as it is....) I will live a very green life when we finally have our own house (hubby and I live at the father-in-laws for now) as we both want to have our own garden and I would like to own some chickens, etc. and we've even talked about possibly looking into solar panels if we have a big enough place.
Every little bit helps when we can do it.
Things that you might be able to do for a long term difference might be instead of driving a car the whole route to say work, either walk completely or park half way there and walk the rest?
Change the types of food you eat or buy to local (ish) if possible, cuts down on food miles. Plus often tastes better than supermarket mush.
Change battery types.
If you are going to grow for gardens in future use newspaper pots, they can then be planted straight into the ground and will disintergrate without the need for using plastic pots, therefore cutting back on oil useage.
etc etc.
Hope this might help?
jen
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