Sunday, March 29, 2009

my earth hour experience.


As promised, I am going to tell you my earth hour experience. For starters, it was different from my first earth hour.

The first earth hour I took part in, I spent in candlelight. Last night's, however, I spent at a restaurant (Il Fornello).  The dining area was already embracing the candlelight environment but at 8:30 p.m., only the lights dimmed a smidget.

I totally understand that a restaurant cannot turn all the lights off on a Saturday night, but come on, dimming the lights by a hairline is not going to benefit the world all that much. I guess the effort can be applauded but if restaurants and other businesses don't push themselves a little more, earth hour (which refers to the entire world, by the way) just won't work.

So come on, give a little bit back.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you really think about it earth hour causes more harm to the environment then good.
It takes more energy to turn your lights on.
Now consider everyone in the world who participated in earth hour.
Yea, it does a little bit of good having all those lights off, but then everyone goes to turn them all on when earth hour is over, that just does more harm then good.

llc said...

I agree that turning lights on takes more energy, obviously.

You raise a good point.

However, I have a question for you. Do you think that the different time zones reduce the negative effects of Earth Hour?

Since it was not 8:30 p.m. everywhere at once, do you think that the negative effects could be minimal since participants did not turn their lights off/on all at the same time?

Do you think Earth Hour should be heald for a longer period of time? Or do you think it should not be heald at all?

I think that the idea of Earth Hour is promising which is why I would have liked for the restaurant I was eating at to turn off its lights.

However, now that you've brought up these points, I can see it in a different light.

Thanks for your comment.

Anonymous said...

no, even though there's many time zones, everyone in that zone is turning their lights on at the exact same time.

If the world wants to do something for the earth, then don't use unnecessary energy, and if people really care about the earth and really want to stop eating meat.
It uses a lot of energy to kill and produce an animal, which humans are actually healthier by not eating.

I understand how you wanted the restaurant to do something useful for the environment, and at least they did something.

Just make sure you don't only try to do something for that one day...

llc said...

Fair enough.

I think it might be difficult to have the entire world stop eating meat because some cultures have practiced eating meat for a number of years. It becomes a tradition in many people's lives. However, I do have a number of friends that do not eat it as much as others, so perhaps that's a start.

Approximately 3.2% of the world are vegetarians. Another solution would be to eat organic meats where no preservatives have been added and no processing has been done to the meat. Or if you're not a meat fan, stick to that too. As you said, not eating as much meat is healthier, but protein is still essential in our diet. Sure, some people may prefer meat alternatives, but others would rather meat. Since that's the case, organic meats are progresssomething great to invest in.

Who knows, perhaps one day people will not eat as much meat and not waste as much energy as we do today. We see this progress in the Earth Hour event. 53 million people took part in Earth Hour. It's not the entire world, but it is a start.

You're right, though. Earth Hour should not be the only thing we do for the world to preserve energy. There should be a lot more events and regular practices to save the world's future.

Unfortunately, we've only come this far. Like I previously said, it is a start.

llc said...

*Correction: "progress" should not be placed before "something" in the second paragraph. Here is the correct version:*

Approximately 3.2% of the world are vegetarians. Another solution would be to eat organic meats where no preservatives have been added and no processing has been done to the meat. Or if you're not a meat fan, stick to that too. As you said, not eating as much meat is healthier, but protein is still essential in our diet. Sure, some people may prefer meat alternatives, but others would rather meat. Since that's the case, organic meats are something great to invest in.