There’s something more going on in Minnesota these days than the recent bout of flooding that has plagued the state. While the flooding does show the lack of control we have over the natural world, this movement could help us come back into synch with the earth.
That something is Earth Hour- one hour in which the University of Minnesota, Duluth campus is darkened in order to spread awareness of the amount of energy we use on a daily basis- even unconsciously. But UMD is just one participant in this global effort. Earth Hour is situated on March 28th of each year, where the lights are put out between the hours of 8.30 and 9.30 pm. Started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, when even the symbolic Sydney Opera House darkened their halls, it has since spread to over 1,000 cities and 74 countries across the globe.
The 2009 Earth Hour aimed at a goal of 1 billion participants, a number that is scheduled to be presented at the 2009 Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Some of the biggest shows of support for the project are the monuments that have turned off their show lights in support, including San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, Rome’s Coliseum, and Time Square’s famous Coca-Cola Billboard. Apart from saving massive amounts of energy, these shows of support are all the more important because of the major government and corporate agencies that show their support for the anti-global warming movement.
But while Time Magazine would seem to disagree on the exact environmental impact of Earth Hour, they may be right considering the ratio of energy saved during one hour to the ratio of energy used over the entire day. But they are also right in showing that Earth Hour is in more than numbers. It’s in the spirit of awareness, realization of the enormous impact our small actions can have. It reminds us to turn off the lights when we’re done and know that even one small an act of symbolism can have an impact on the global mindset.
