Earth Hour-Lights Out for Climate Change

On Saturday the 27th of March 2010 at 8:30pm you can help play a small part in reducing the negative effects of Climate Change by participating in 60 Earth Hour.

All you need to do is go to the Earth Hour website and register to turn off your lights and appliances for 60 minutes.



Now in its fourth year in Australia, you can make it bigger and better. It is already the single largest mass participation event on the planet. So lets all try to make it huge.

What can you do in the dark? Here is a short list:

• Go to bed and get a good nights sleep.
• Go for a walk through you neighbourhood and observe just how much electricity is being wasted even during Earth Hour.
• Play a game of hide and go seek or a game of spotlight.
• Turn off the TV and read a book by torchlight.
• Play monopoly or solitaire by candlelight.
• Start or write a journal.

One last thing. I recently bought a wind-up torch which has a dynamo inside and is lit by 3 LEDs so I never have to use another dry cell battery. Nor will I ever get my torch out of the drawer to find the battery has gone flat. It was on special for $9.90 but even at the full price of $19.80 the savings made by never using batteries is worth buying  one. 

Peace, energy efficiency, help stop climate change and support Earth Hour

Help stop climate change by eating your domestic pet.

I stumbled onto a book recently by a couple of New Zealand scientists named Robert and Brenda Vale, The book is called Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living.

An interesting concept, I thought. According to their book the annual impact of a medium sized family dog is the same as driving a large four wheel drive 10,000km.

Yes, this will upset a lot of people especially if they have to eat faithful 11 year old Fido, Rover or Spot.

So I thought I would list a few other sacrifices people should make and the associated solution.

• The delegated who attended the recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2009 should have held their conference online using modern communication technologies instead of taking jet airplanes to Copenhagen.

• We all need to stop eating meat and become vegetarian. You will contribute less to methane and carbon emissions and have a healthier and better quality life.

• Stop using cars and gas guzzling SUV's and ride a bicycle or take public transport. This will reduce greenhouse emissions and help you get healthy.

• Replant your lovely green grass lawn that you rarely use with a food garden. You will not have to cut the lawn and you will be rewarded with healthy produce.

• Change you incandescent lights for compact fluorescent lights. This one will save you money and reduce your contribution to global warming.

• Recycle everything you can.

• Use a reusable shopping bag more than 100 times. This will negate the effects of using plastic bags.

• Don't eat frozen food and eat fresh food. Fresh food uses 10% of the energy to produce than frozen food.

• Have fewer children. The population of the world is expected to reach 7 billion on the 10th of April this year (2010). That is an extra 3 billion people since the 17th of July 1971 when the population reached 4 billion people. If you really want to be responsible for raising children you can adopt an orphan. There are plenty to go around.

• Outlaw war and weapons which not only contributes to climate change but also unquantifiable human suffering.

• You can visit the following website for 50 more ideas http://globalwarming-facts.info/50-tips.html

Ok. I know these are all drastic measures but so too is global warming, the melting of the polar ice-caps, the abnormally high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the large numbers of wars.

Peace, Love, Sustainability, Happiness and Health.