On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m. many cities throughtout the world will participate in Earth Hour, the global movement that will have millions of people across the globe turning off the lights in their homes, offices and communities.
What started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 has now become a global movement. For one hour on March 31, 2007 Sydney powered down and lived by candlelight. The effect of this effort reduced the city of Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% in just one hour. This has the same effect as taking 48,000 cars off the roads for one year. During that one hour families, friends and individuals gathered together by candlelight and not only fostered a better sense of community but realized the many ways they can further reduce their carbon footprint from the Earth.
Now in 2008 cities and towns all over the world have decided to take part in this major environmental effort. In the US, Chicago leads the way and is joined by corporations and organizations like McDonald’s and the Chicago Cubs who join the World Wildlife Federation in sponsoring this first US Earth Hour.
I for one will be joining this effort and not just because they used Jeremy Piven’s voice in the US version of the Earth Hour piece. I think this is a great way to introduce the idea of conservation to my child and create a community or neighborhood effort at the same time. The website has many great ideas to get your effort started. I hope that many more people throughout the world and in our country (the US is behind the curve on this one) will log on to this site, participate and learn more about how they too can easily reduce their carbon footprint.
