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Golden Gate Bridge after Earth Hour. Photo by World Wildlife Fund.
"We are going to have a snuggle party under some blankets reading a book by flashlight," says Amy C. Westrup, mother of a 9-year old. Westrup is one of many parents who will take advantage of Earth Hour to make bedtime special for their children. An initiative from the World Wilddlife Fund, Earth Hour takes place on March 27, 2010 from 8.30 to 9.30pm and anynone can participate. Simply flip off the light switches during an hour.
In 2009, almost a billion people participated in this 4th annual global event where 87 countries set their clocks on 8.30pm local time to celebrate Earth Hour and express their concern about climate change. If you want to participate and make it a family event, here are several options.
To kick off Earth Hour in a fashionably Twilight way, GreenMyParents suggests to kill the energy vampires in your home. "Leaving gear on 'standby' wastes up to 10% of electricity. That’s more than $100 a year for an average family," says Tom Feegel, founder of the family greening program. Look for power lights and rechargeable batteries. Unplug everything that is not in use (cell phone charger, toaster, etc). Start in your room and then search the house, including the garage. Use surge strips to kill vampires with one finger.
Once you've gotten rid of all unnecessary lights in your home, fun in the dark can begin. Sara Lise Raff, education consultant, shares her ideas on family-friendly Earth Hour:
- Invite some neighborhood friends over and play with glo sticks or flashlights
- If you hang a white sheet you can have fun making shadow animals.
- You can have a sing along with friends (guitar or piano) singing songs like "He's got the whole world in his hands," "This land is your land," etc.
- Recreate a campsite in your home with tents, make smores, use flashlights or candles (be careful!) and tell ghost or scary stories.
To reduce fire hazards (and wax drippings) with candle lights, you can light tea candles inside clean preserve jars. By placing the jar on a mirror, you will reflect the light and increase luminosity - a useful move to read a book.
"We are a small family of three in Santa Cruz and plan to spend Earth Hour reading books and playing games by candlelight," says Suzanne Thomas, mother of a 6-year old who loves "fake power outage". "We read books by candlelight and flashlight during October to make story time extra special." Indeed, Earth Hour is a fantastic opportunity to get your inner Laura Ingalls Wilder out and play Little House on the Prairie ... inside.
Since Earth Hour is a Saturday evening, it's also possible you'll be with friends. The Mother Nature Network came up with a list of activities for Earth Hour that invites you, if you dare, to play Taboo by candlelight.
If you feel like a night out, pack the family in the car and drive to the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland. From the observatory deck you will be able to see San Francisco's downtown and landmarks go off at 8.30pm, as well as the surrounding Bay Area. Keep an eye out for the Golden Gate Bridge and Coit Tower as they are on the list of Earth Hour official celebrating landmarks.
It will also be a perfect night for stargazing so other prime Bay Area spots would be East Peak at Mt Tamalpais or Speedway Meadows at the Golden Gate Park (the latter for the unobstructed views in a forested part of the city - not because of the altitude).
Whatever you do for Earth Hour, tweet and FB about it so your friends can join you in a rare lo-tech celebration of a bigger issue. The Earth Hour website even suggests a sample 137-character tweet 4 UR fanbase: "I just pledged to turn off my lights for WWF's Earth Hour - largest climate action ever. Vote with me at: http://bit.ly/2gpzOV #earthhour." Take advantage, copy and paste!
Earth Hour lasts only an hour per year but you can rebel and make it last - or do it again at will. Every light off counts.
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