"Give the Earth a Hand" By Autumn Shishon 2008
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What did you do for "EARTH HOUR 2008???"
Here is our story. It was more difficult than I anticipated, and I that was a true testament to how spoiled we are.
Early in March when we pledged to participate in EARTH HOUR, it felt great to make a promise to Mother Earth. I didn't hesitate to add our names to the pledge and encouraged others to participate. I figured it would be so easy to contribute and help make a big difference with a small amount of effort. I mean seriously, what is better than being part of a large movement. My little "drop in the bucket" effort would become part of a much bigger "body of water," effort and thus make the result much more evident.
Needless to say, I was proud of myself. BUT......
8:00 PM snuck up on us! As my digital, "electric" clock showed the changing of the hour, I was darting around the house turning off lights and unplugging things to cut the energy supply.
At 8:01 I tripped over a dog toy while rushing through the front room. Shortly after that, I tripped down the dark stairs to the basement.
At 8:02 I had a brief, and slightly heated discussion with my husband about the seriousness of our pledge when he complained as I switched off the satellite and TV...."Why Can't we watch TV? What are we supposed to do for the next hour!?!, " he protested. I explained that we had pledged to participate and we were going to follow through with our word. As I switched off the last of the lights in the basement, I heard my husband sigh as he followed me back up the stairs to the main floor. I rolled my eyes at his reservations and in a condescending tone added, "Good Grief...It's only 1 hour!"
At 8:03 my husband was coming back inside after reluctantly tromping out into the wind to turn off our landscaping lights.
At 8:04 we stood looking out at the houses on our street. I'm not sure what I expected....maybe black-out like conditions. But, that isn't what we saw. Suddenly, we were very aware of all the lights that were on up and down the street...Most of them, unnecessary.
At 8:05 we turned back into our now VERY dark house and realized that we needed some light to move safely - even in our own home. My husband located a flashlight relatively quickly, but not before I smacked my head on the closet door and stubbed my toe on the sofa table while trying to get the candles out. After what seemed like at least 10 minutes, I had located the stick matches and finally lit one of the candles which, surprisingly, made a huge difference in our abilities to function. A short time later, we had oriented ourselves and we each had plans for the next hour of our lives.
My husband was going to take a candle-lit bath to relax after our busy day. My plan included a my PJ's, my bed, a book, and battery powered book light.
Over the next 30 minutes, we encountered some issues in the dark as a result of forgetting our candles. A bump here and there while trying to navigate the bathroom to use the potty, a frustrating search for tissues in a dark cabinet, a treacherous trek to the kitchen to get a glass of water. These simple things were more of an adventure than anticipated.
As we settled down and our hour came to a close...as we started to countdown the last few minutes before we could flip on the TV again...in the last couple minutes of our pledge...we had a couple minutes to reflect on how spoiled we really are, and I felt something...
This time it wasn't pride. This time I felt sad...and humiliated. I was sad that it was so evident that I take granted our resources. And, it was humiliating to think that I had difficulty with such a small pledge. I hadn't been without power for a whole day, or week, or month. I hadn't been forced to restrict my water consumption. I hadn't needed to grow or hunt for my own food. I didn't have to walk everywhere I wanted to go....I simply pledged to turn off my power for 1, ONE, hour. We don't think twice about getting up and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, because we have indoor facilities that are warm, lit, and smell good. We don't think twice about flipping on the light to run into the kitchen for a drink of water or a mid-night snack. We don't think twice about the convenience of simply flipping on the TV or radio to entertain our lazy minds.
The key is...Our consumption is MINDLESS....therein lies the catapult for our energy consumption problems. WE SIMPLY DON'T THINK!
Don't get me wrong, I believe that any and all efforts made to conserve our natural resources are worth the effort. BUT, I need to be more AWARE. I need to try harder. I need to realize how easy I have it and try to preserve what I can. My hope is that I can continue to make a difference. My hope is that with more awareness, we will all start to think about what we do have and what we waste.
Making a big difference is really pretty easy....it just requires that we:
CARE ENOUGH TO BE AWARE!
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If you want to get a head start on participating next year....you can pledge to be a part of EARTH HOUR 2009 here: http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up
