Yes, I observe Earth Hour by switching off appliances and lights. (no need to worry about heating here!)

Gecko, I like your idea of doing it once a month - I hope it catches on.

No plans. I guess I could go around the house and turn all the lights out. No guarantee that others who live here won't turn them right back on again though.

Tell them why you are turning the lights off - challenge people...make a game of it.

Yes.  I always shut everything down -- even if I'm at work (it's a residence and most have gone to bed).  It's great to go outside and observe the darkness.  It's encouraging to me to see that Earth Hour has been embraced more and more each year.

I also like the idea of doing it monthly, or as often as you can.  With an airtight woodstove and some candles.

Yes, that might work. Turn off all the lights and see who can go the longest before turning them back on. Winner gets a donut.

I get to observe it because the weekend retreat that I was thinking of attending is not happening now- good for Earth Hour (and I'm really pleased!) but too bad about the retreat. Maybe they were going to include Earth Hour in the weekend.

Last year we went out, hoping to watch the Toronto skyline dim from where we were.  It did, but it was hard to get the big impact.  Not sure if we'd head downtown, or just stay home and light the candles & play cards.  I'm interested in ideas though.

Watch TV

Has anyone actually questioned the fact that by shutting the power down for an hour .... might actually be worse since you need a ton of juice to get things back up to speed ?

A church here is having an unplugged concert with out lights.

If you lived in a rural area you get to experience this on a regular basis - its called a power outage

I will enjoy Earth Hour as I have in the past.  Shut everything down and watch the sun set over the pond.  Even my hyperactive partner finds its relaxing.

LB

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails.

     Henry David Thoreau, Walden

I'd love to but I doubt Wal-mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville Ark. would be happy with me if I darkened our store for an hour.

Wrong.  For most things (probably 90+%) anyway.  That might be true if they were taking generating stations off line but they won't be.

I live in the boonies too, so power outages are common.  Watching the sun set over the pond sounds wonderful.

Really like this quote, LBmuskoka.

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails.

     Henry David Thoreau, Walden

[/quote]

Wrong.  For most things (probably 90+%) anyway.  That might be true if they were taking generating stations off line but they won't be.

That is not what i said .. perhaps you should stick to what you think you know ....

We don't observe Earth Hour, preferring instead to keep our footprint as small as we can year round. Our house is often dark save for the one or two rooms we are in, we put our computers on standby or hibernate when not in use and shut them down overnight, and so on. In summer, we bike to the local mall and library instead of driving (unless we're buying something that requires a larger vehicle for transportation). And so on. The things we do throughout the year probably add up to way more than one hour's worth of energy so we (my wife in particular) don't see that we are doing much other than symbolically by participating. We are also somewhat irked by the neighbours who observe Earth Hour and then suck up hydro like a sponge (eg. turning on their air conditioning as soon as the temp gets above 20, leave their Christmas lights up and running for 3 months, and so on) the rest of the year.

Mendalla

I miss those power outages since I've moved back to the city.  I used to just go to bed if it was getting dark and usually when I woke up, it would be back on.

Having the woodstove was great because I also used it to heat the kettle or keep soup hot -- whatever.  It was good to know you had what you needed to be ok even with no power.

BTW -- I concur with Mendella.  It's a largely symbolic act without much value unless it prompts people to think more seriously about their consumption and environmental footprint on every level. 

I've never lived in the country, but my family has a cottage on a lake up in Haliburton County and we used to have at least one outage a summer due to storms rampaging across the lake. As a result, I have some fond memories of playing cards by coal oil lamp, getting ready for bed by flashlight, and so on.

Mendalla

Ninjafaery and Mendalla - I agree that Earth Hour is largely symbolic.  Makes people feel good that they have done something, but what is more important is our actions for the other 364 days and how we try to minimize our ecological footprint.

I read on one of the Enegy efficient websites that powering up a computer from shut-down requires less energy than keeping computers in sleep or standby mode.

I get annoyed too that people are so reliant on energy hogging air conditioning systems, but then I don't live in a place of high temperatures and humidity.

Swimming pools bother me with their excessive use of water when millions of people don't have safe drinking water. 

Problem is during last couple of years it is safer to have your own pool than frequent local beaches because of e-coli contamination of water.

We really are screwing up our planet, and turning off lights for one hour once a year isn't even a bandaid solution.  Our human will and political will to make significant changes are what will make a difference.....

 Wow, I love that idea. Not even necessarily for the environmentalism involved.  I just think it sounds kewl.

I will probably be sleeping.  That, post on wondercafe, and play games on facebook is about all  I do.  My dvd player in the bedroom does not work anymore.

 You can always buy a new one and, hey, just in time for Earth Hour.

jae wrote:

You can always buy a new one and, hey, just in time for Earth Hour. 

Can't buy a new one until after I have the baby and then I won't have time to watch movies.

She_Devil wrote:

jae wrote:

You can always buy a new one and, hey, just in time for Earth Hour. 

 

Can't buy a new one until after I have the baby and then I won't have time to watch movies.

You can always order one online and you'll have lots of time to watch it while you're nursing and changing poopy diapers and such.

I don't order things online.  Besides I would have to check the mail and then go to the post office to pick up the parcel.   I am not supposed to drive.

Depends on what you mean by sleep. Hibernate mode shuts the computer off completely, but flushes the memory to disk so it will bring you back to where you were when you hibernated. It used to be a laptop thing but most desktops can do it, too. Standby, however, merely puts it into a sleep mode where no processing goes on, but power continues to flow to the RAM to keep your programs "live". So, yes, shutting down or hibernating will use less power than standby.

However, there is one final caveat on all this: most modern computers do not completely shutdown. For instance, if you shut one down and look at the back, the activity lights on the network card will still be on, showing that there is still power to the peripherals. This is to allow for features like having the computer turn on automatically when someone connects to it across a network, but it also means that the computer continues to consume power even when "off". The workaround, if you want to totally shut down your box, is to plug it into a power bar or uninterruptible power supply (UPS for short), and then shut that device off once the computer is completely shutdown (not before, or you'll be risking disk crashes and file corruption). Since a desktop PC should be in a surge-protected power bar or UPSanyhow to protect it from surges, spikes, brownouts, etc., this should not require any additional expense, just an extra button push at shutdown and startup time.

Of course, you want to make sure that peripherals like monitors, printers, scanners, etc. are powered off, too, when you're not using them.

Mendalla

You don't even have to buy a player you can watch movies online for freeeeeeeeeeeee

thanks for noting that about the power bar, Mendalla.  I have been doing that for some time with my desktop and have recently considered adding a power bar to plug in my tv/dvd in my bedroom.  I use them so irregularly and I'm convinced that I can hear them whirrrring away even when they're turned off.

I use very little power day-to-day.  My home computer's on only for an hour or so each evening and I only really watch tv over dinner and very occasionally when I'm on my way to bed.  Lights are off unless I'm in the room.  The office that I work at has computers working all day and lights blazing all over.  I do what I can hound those who are wasteful.

I don't expect to act much differently during Earth Hour.  I'll just make sure that I've already had my tv and internet time.  I'll probably read or go out for a walk.

That can be fixed. My office has a bare minimum of lights on after hours for security. During the day, we turn off lights in rooms like the training room, mail room, washrooms, etc. that aren't occupied by staff all the time. PCs are supposed to be shut down or at least on standby when unused (I'm not checking though). The servers have to run 24x7, unfortunately, but as we retire the older servers, the new ones have a much lower power footprint. Copier goes on standby after hours (it's also our fax, so we can't shut it down completely). More broadly, we've moved to replace all our vehicles with more fuel-efficient ones that have lower emissions (e.g. field staff now use Mazda5's now instead of minivans). Corporations can do a lot, too, the will just needs to be there.

Mendalla

All good ideas - thanks!

I think it's about time to whip out my badge and become the power police!

TV / VCR etc suck a lot of power.  Anything with a remote control does.  So certainly more power bars, or old fashioned unplugging will work well.

We have always been very restrained in our use of power, but unfortunately having a disabled baby undoes most of our good work.  Our power consumption has more than doubled in the last year and a half, and there really isn't much more we can do about it.  Water use is way up, too.  Living in what is in practice a one bed hospital ain't cheap.

Mendalla touches on a point that those of us who live with power outages can appreciate.  Unless the main power is turned off there are still many modern devices using power -

all those little clocks ticking away.

What I love about an extended outage - after the storm has passed - is the silence.  We are often unaware of all that background noise - the constant hum of machinery. It is there just beneath our consciousness.

Earth Hour will not change all minds but it does raise awareness in some.  In our community because of such initiatives the governing bodies are switching to more environmentally conscious ways of doing business. Our street lights are being made dark sky friendly.  They are powering down equipment when not in use.  These acts are not based on altruism or save the planet idealism, they are being done because these bodies are finding that in doing so they save money.  To quote a recent public works official "the cheapest way is not always cheaper in the long run".

And even I, lover of Thoreau's words, have no desire to sit in the dark silence forever.  After 10 days of no power I was grateful for its return.  What I do seek is a balance between lifestyle and impact; a positive approach instead of negative.

We will never get even remotely close to finding a balance if the focus remains on protecting the status quo by dismissing even the smallest steps in a positive direction.

Addendum to Jon - in our town several stores are observing Earth Hour including a local coffee shop who says, and I quote, "no problem, we'll just pre brew and put in it  thermoses".  They're not on the forefront of a environmental movement, they just know a good PR move when they see it and I say "so what, its a little step in the right direction".

LB

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

     Henry David Thoreau, Walden

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."    Margaret Mead ..

TORONTO, March 24 /CNW/ - Nearly three-quarters of Ontario homeowners say they intend to participate in this year's Earth Hour as support grows in the fight against climate change. Research undertaken by Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) found 73 per cent of respondents plan to participate in Earth Hour this year - up from the 51 per cent planned participation rate indicated in last year's survey.

When compared to a typical Saturday night in late March, Ontarians' actions during Earth Hour 2009 contributed to an overall drop in demand for electricity of 920 megawatts (MW), which is equivalent to the peak energy needs of Mississauga at this time of year.

I heard something kind of ironic on the cbc this morning.

Ten million Candians participated in Earth Hour last year.  That is a considerably greater number than the average voter turnout, and yet the feds have remained indifferent around this event. 

That's kind of obtuse, isn't it?

Ninjafaery, I think it shows that politicians practice Earth Hour all year:  sitting perpetually in the dark with the sound of public voices turned off.

I'm watching hockey night in Canada.  I need by fix of Don and Ron.  Why do they do this during a hockey game?  That's a secular religious event for many Canadians.   If they want me to celebrate earth hour, I'll do it between 1 am and 2 am when I'm sawing logs.  And, if I have to get up to go to the 'sandbox', I"ll use a flashlight.

Earth hour is like spitting on a forest fire.  Let's abolish military involvement in countries where we have no purpose in fighting except  to make the manufacturers of military equipment and energy companies rich.  Look at the energy wasted in the manufacturer, transportation and utilization of this equipment.  Demolish energy inefficient United Church buildings and have multi point charges provide their minister with a horse and buggy.  Aw, heck, maybe we should all join the Amish.

our business will be turning off as many lights as possible tonight and i'm taking the kids to stargaze at a local park (the stargazer's group of mississauga).

Youth Group will be mostly in the dark tonight.

Ninjafaery, I also thought about the number of votes those 10 million people who particpated in Earth Hour last year represent. I wonder if some of our politicians/leaders will begin to take the climate crisis seriously (one can hope!).

And while of course one hour without electricity is minimal, for me it is the symbolism, it is joining in with others saying we care about earth and are aware of what is happening on this planet. One hour with the lights/electronics out is certainly not all we do to in our home and I'm sure the same is for many others as well.

For our family, Earth Hour for the past few years has been a time to intentionally sit in the dark and talk, we talk about the climate situation, we talk about things we do to support the planet and things we could do 'better', and it has been a time to reflect and talk about all that we are grateful for living on this beautiful planet. The past two years our earth hour, went beyond the hour and we have just kept the lights out and gone to bed. And while Earth Hour is certainly not the only time our family engages in discussion about climate change in our home, it is the intentional planned time that I appreciate.

Tonight we'll have a twist to our 'ritual' ... quite some time ago we planned a sleepover belated birthday gathering here with a couple of mystchild's friends. I am not sure what the hour will look like for them - but we will turn out the lights and electronics. mystchild suggested they have pillow fights in the dark or go for a walk. The walk sounds good to me.   And playing crib or scrabble by candlelight sounds good for my partner and I. Tomorrow evening - when it's just the three of us - we will have a bit of the 'ritual', don't want to miss out on that important piece this year.