Did anyone do Earth Hour?

[Tracy Young]

I'm curious if any of you participated in Earth Hour on Saturday, and if so, what you thought. I didn't plan ahead very well, and found that putting away laundry in the dark is probably not a great idea :)

[Meghan Kraley]

I did, theoretically, though I don't usually have my lights on that early anyway. Since I live alone, it wasn't any big solidarity act for me, but I was really please to see so much press about it - both before and after. The cynic in me assumes that everyone kind of groans and rolls their eyes when another 'special action day' is announced, but I think this really did serve as a wake up call for some people, especially with a few hotel chains and other more visible for-profit organizations joined in.

[Meghan Kraley]

The Christian Post had a pretty good recap of the ways various countries participated. I liked google's approach of blackening their homepage - it's a good reminder that there's all sorts of ways you can show your support, even if things like travel or whatever aren't possible.

[Karen Bokma]

I did it. I realized that I don't have a lot of lights on in my house anyway, but it did make me think. Earth Hour got quite a bit of press and a national newspaper made a push for people to participate. A poll done estimated that about 70% of Canadians were planning on participating.

[Beth DeGraff]

Well, I had a conflicted earth hour. Like Meghan, my lights aren't usually on at that hour either, just for different reasons. I did leave my two outside lights on because of our neighborhood watch. So I didn't have a "purist" earth hour, but I also didn't get robbed!

[Cindy Verbeek]

We did. We held a candle light vigil at the Anglican church in town. 7 people showed up and we shared snacks before 8 and then at lights off we moved to the sanctuary where we lit bees wax candles (made locally) and some tea lights (yes I know they produce more CO2 than the lights that we shut off but...well we decided to do it anyway). It was wonderful. I read The Lorax, another person read a quote from Mother Earth Magazine and then we just sat around and tried to figure out how to save the world in our little corner of it. It was very encouraging and empowering. My husband stayed home with the kids and wasn't so thrilled with having to deal with bed times, brushing teeth etc. in the dark so the kids were still up when I got home at 9:30.

By the way, google has a permanent blacked out search engine called Blackle. Instead of using google for your searches go to www.blackle.com and save energy. I have it as my home page so it saves even that little bit when the computer loads. Not much but every bit helps.