The plan was to go downtown and celebrate Earth Hour this past Saturday, March 31, 2012, embraced in the dark cloak of the night sky while poking at the swirls of starry lights with shared telescopes.
Yeah...that didn't happen.
I arrived downtown with my trusty old camera. I took tons of pictures and told myself, "Yeah! I can wait eight hours until the Department of Astronomy opens its doors to welcome the public to a tour of the cosmos." It would have been the perfect day for it, since it was going to be the day that everyone shut their lights off for one hour, sharing in one night of technology-less solidarity.
Or at least, that was my hope. Turns out that at about four o'clock, I sat myself down at an Indigo book store to kill time. I ended up snoozing to the words of a French Grammar book. When I woke up, I realized that I probably spent too much time in the sun, I didn't even eat lunch, and drat it all! I didn't dress for the weather. I was cold (even inside the book store!), and feeling generally rotten (hunger and frost bite will do that to you @~@).
So defeated by my lack of preparation and my stupid allergies (it's hard to find cheap food that's also gluten free just walking around randomly), I decided to begrudgingly go home.
And, after arriving and having a quick dinner, I fell promptly asleep and missed the chance to see a glorious, dark night sky :( Though I did perform the promised hour (and more!) of less electricity use at the predetermined time. Sigh...
I suppose whether I was awake or not, it wouldn't have mattered, because apparently, the night sky could not be seen in brightly lit Toronto during Earth hour anyway! Harrumph!
So what are my actual thoughts on the practice of Earth Hour? Personally, I don't think that it actually helps save the environment, or energy, in any significant way. Earth Hour is more a symbol of solidarity among people concerned for the environment. I think we all know that it doesn't put a dent on our record-breaking energy use stats, but it certainly raises awareness about how much energy we actually use.
But, regardless of how much awareness people have, a movement's power lies in whether it actually inspires people to "move" and to take action. So did Earth Hour diminish peoples' use of energy overall? Probably not. So maybe it's just a day that makes us, the world's biggest energy users, feel a little better about ourselves.
