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Earth Hour is one of the most fun events of the year, in my books anyway. Everyone’s itching to get out of the house in spring, and what’s more fun than to walk through the streets of your town when everyone’s out to see the spectacle. While a light bulb that makes light out of dark can seem like a miracle thing, somehow, to me, seeing a whole bunch of lights go out at once, in the spirit of environmentalism, is the big miracle.

Earth Hour is next Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 PM. My parents are coming to town, and I’m looking forward to walking the city with them as everyone comes together to create a big non-light show across the Toronto. It’s great to see all kinds of light sources flicked off — in office towers, apartments, shop signs and window displays, in public spaces, schools, little houses and more. An LED flashlight (powered by rechargeable batteries) is the evening’s must-have accessory!

After the event, I’ll be eager to see how much we reduced our power consumption. The dramatic numbers of previous years show that we’re willing to conserve, all we need is a little incentive… or a special event. Here’s my post about last year’s results.

What are you planning to do for Earth Hour?

Lighting during Earth Hour

Earth Hour ended up being a lot of fun. My folks and my partner and I went for a late afternoon walk in the woods. The Thousand Islands area is on the Canadian Shield. Meandering through the woods means making your way over tumbled chunks of rock covered in colourful lichens, surrounded by thick, spongy mosses, strewn with fragrant pine needles. Unfortunately, where my folks live, there is an out-of-control deer population, so one must steer clear of little round droppings everywhere.

After our walk, we prepped dinner on the barbecue and chopped up a salad. It’s pretty hard to eat locally in Ontario at this time of year – the winter stores have just about run out and nothing’s in the ground yet to harvest. But at least by cooking off the grid we minimized our power usage on Earth Hour night!

Dinner prep ticked into the final minutes leading up to Earth Hour, but we soon flicked off the last couple of lights and lit some candles. And then we started thinking of things that might be drawing power around the house! Before long, flashlights in hand, people were dispatched to unplug the DVD player and TV, and anything else potentially drawing power. It was a good exercise in thinking about all of the electronics and appliances that steal away a little power all the time.

I think the candlelight made for great dinner conversation. With the gentle candlelight flickering across our faces, illuminating the area around us and not much more, it’s no surprise we were focused on one another, and the lights were out well after Earth Hour was officially over.

Back in Toronto, I was thrilled to see everyone’s evident interest in Earth Hour — a 15 per cent power reduction, about double last year’s achievement. Congratulations, everybody! Here’s a video of Earth Hour’s lights out around the world.

What did you do for Earth Hour?