Earth Hour

Saturday, March 28
People & cities around the world were requested to voluntarily participate in turning off all your lights, computers & other devices which draw on electricity for one hour. The idea is bring real awareness to how we affect the environment and little things we can do to that make an impact when everyone is participating. For many this is a silent protest to bring attention to the seriousness of the environmental and ecological situation.

"We, in the industrialized world, take our abundant energy for granted and don’t consider just how much we benefit from its use in every minute of every day. Driving our cars to work and school, sitting in our lighted, heated homes and offices, powering our computers and countless other labor-saving appliances, we count on the indispensable values that industrial energy makes possible: hospitals and grocery stores, factories and farms, international travel and global telecommunications." (quoted from the Westmount Examiner) The rest of the article I consider to be somewhat irrational.

Any law can be used for the greater good or the greater evil; all laws are made in a way that is slightly loose and open to interpretation.

While it is true that there is evidence to support that the environmental global emergency may as much be a part of a natural process as it is man-created; that doesn't excuse our part in how we impact the planet.

Any extreme action is not going to solve problems. This is true. A middle ground has to be found. We could very easily plan our cities, our power usage, our power sources & other forms of modern luxury in a way that is harmonious to the earth. As a society we only think about the needs of a luxury seeking society that is scared of what it can't control.

The earth is definitely going through a natural cycle right now; technically I don't think the end of the last ice age has finished because the only reason the poles have ice caps are because they are left overs from the last ice age. So the ice caps would probably be melting at some point anyways. But I doubt it would be this fast without our contribution. There would not be this many animals on the verge of extinction, the trees would not be as few, or the waters as polluted, little say the condition of the air. The trees do a lot to help process small amounts of pollution and create clean air but they can't handle what we currently produce when our pollution increases and the trees are disappearing.

It's totally irresponsible to suggest that we don't have a hand in creating the mess we are dealing with. It's also not constructive to get emotional about it or to ignore what is going on or evade responsibility.

If we were to draw on multiple energy sources instead of relying on just one, we could still have electricity without making a huge impact.

I personally see Earth Hour as an opportunity as individuals to try to teach ourselves to be aware of how we are affecting the environment and to analyze what we can do to create the best of all worlds.