New Ground: Small Steps to a Sustainable Environment

Earth Hour

Did you turn out your lights last Saturday night?

Don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t. I didn’t either. What I did do was to go out and look around my neighborhood. I saw that most of my neighbors had lights on as well. I figured that those who didn’t were probably out for the evening or away for the week-end.

I also took a look at Google, whose home page had been promoting the event throughout the day. No surprise, but they didn’t shut down for Earth Hour. To paraphrase an old adage, isn’t what’s good for the whole gang, good for the “Google”?

Designed to give participants warm fuzzies, events like Earth Hour don’t do a whole lot of practical good. We aren’t going to save the planet by turning out our lights for an hour. I imagine, in many cases, those that did stayed up an hour longer. It’s no surprise that the event was held on a Saturday night. What if we expected businesses and industry to shut down for an hour in the middle of the week? Although an event such as that might do some real good (if global participation was mandated), the corporate hue and cry would be deafening. Don’t rush out to buy your earplugs just yet.

So what can you do on a Global scale?

1. Write your legislators, your power companies, and other industries that affect your environment and encourage them to change. Not many of us have the time or the resolve to sit and write a gross of letters in one sitting, but you can make a commitment to write one a week or a month. Ask them to take the initiative in researching, developing, and initiating green power supplies
2. Forget about one-time, jump on the bandwagon events. Make a commitment to check your home several times throughout the day and evening for unused power sources that are turned on or plugged in and turn them off or unplug them. It’s the little things we do to improve our own environment and our own qualities of life that will result in a sustainable environment for us all.