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September 2009 
Earth Hour 2008
victoria
Dear Gaia FriendZ ! ! !
On 29 March 2008, people around the world will switch off lights for one hour from 8-9 pm to show a stand against global warming.
Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.
This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8 pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world's major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will unite and switch off for Earth Hour.
We invite you to join the movement and help make a difference: Help Make a Difference on 29 March
Access: Public
We paticipated here in our city even though the local news and population in general was not aware. Google did a great job of raising awareness by making their home page black. This was so very cool!
Thank you!
z
we did it too!
we are going to do it more often than just once a year. who else has plans to do so?
wouldn't it be cool if we could start a global initiative to hold an Earth Hour on the same day each month ?
victoria!! let's do it!! how do we start? do we just pick a time and date and start spreading the word and see who will join us?
I nominate the 17th of each month at 9 pm (since the days are now getting longer?), but I am open to any day or time.
Right ON ! Let's decide on a date first & take it from there ?? Tell me all about the idea/symbolism behind your choice of the 17th ??
When talking to ppl around town, many expressed relief that it was on a Sunday when no one had to compromise their working schedules/ environments & also that Sunday evenings are traditionally a laid back time of the week as well. I also had a thought about how easy it is to remember when events are always “the first (second, third…) Sunday of the month”–wouldn't it be super cool if this were to become a real eco-habit engrained in everyone's memory :-D
I really like your 9pm idea for maximum summer savings.
Any more ideas out there to brainstorm about…? ? ?
Once we figger out a basic structure all we need to do is write a catchy info-thingy & send it all around Gaia …then just watch the ZaadZ grow !
Great FUN, Girlfriend :-D
1<3 victoria
I don't have any reason for choosing 17. it's a nice prime number. it's not offensive to anyone that I know of. Every month has a 17th. The less symbolism the number carries, the less likely it is to offend someone or collect conspiracy theories?
I do understand the 1st Sunday of each month kind of reasoning but then it might conflict with some other activity that some group or town or something has set up up in that very sort of way. I know a town near here that has “First Fridays”, where the first friday of ever month is a big walk through town and all the shops and galleries stay open late and it's a big community event. I would hate to pick one of those and have a whole community or group choose not to play along because it conflicted with their other activities.
Of course, we could put out there that anyone who doesn't want to play along at our date and time is welcome to do it at any other date and / or time. It's just FUN to play together. It could be really dramatic if we could build momemtum for it.
I'll go send a message to the EarthHour website now and see if they want to play with us too. They already probably have a big e mail list to keep in touch with all the people who “signed up” online to participate in this Earth Hour that you mentioned in this blog.
I emailed them. I'll let you know if I get a response. it wouldn't hurt for others to go on their website and send a message too— www.earthhour.org
also – I sent them a little nudge about not creating MORE energy usage by selling T-shirts. We don't need a T-shirt to turn off the lights. ;-)
Farland & I are going to meet with our city and county environmental health department heads to discuss this idea and also to discuss being the first city around here to be completely bottled water free– we'll start by going to local businesses and talking to them about why it's a good idea NOT to sell bottled water and discuss other alternatives that will help them not to sacrifice their precious profits.