How will you spend Earth Hour 2010?

The WWF Earth Hour website states: “Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating.

In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative.”


Earth Hour is Saturday, March 27th from 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

So, Earth Hour can be celebrated by anyone, anywhere. You don’t require anything special except a common, global commitment to a sustainable future.

That concludes the background information portion of this post. Now onto the fun stuff….like how to creatively spend Earth Hour.

Candles, candles – Make sure you have soy or beeswax candles on hand. I prefer to nestle the candles in hurricane vases with a few inches of coffee beans in them to not only protect the flame, but to create a really nice aroma.

Pick a board game – Remember how much fun it was to play board games? Well there are so many games on the market which can be naughty or nice…..choose according to your audience.

Food, glorious food – Create your party menu with the Earth in mind. If you live in an area where seasonal food consists of only root vegetables at this time of year, then perhaps you can go in a different direction. I recently read the Jonathan Safran Foer book entitled “Eating Animals” which is about factory farming. In it, Foer states that, “If every American were to remove one serving of meat a week from his diet, it would be environmentally the equivalent of taking 5 million cars off the road.” Taking a cue from this, prepare a completely vegetarian party menu.

Search and…….unplug – Identify all of the power points in your household that you are able to turn off.

Warm and fuzzy – In some Northern locale’s, it is not appropriate to turn off the furnace for Earth Hour. If that is the case, turn down your thermostat to your night-time setting. Why not “gift” your guests, a pair of slippers to take home with them as a reminder of Earth Hour?

Challenge yourself to more than an hour – I will bet that the one hour spent with family and friends goes by quickly. Challenge yourself to extend the hour! Better yet, challenge yourself to an Earth Hour each week!

Share the experience – Using social media, share the experience with others. If they see how wonderful your Earth Hour experience was, they may try it themselves next year.

Happy Earth Hour everyone