Earth Hour 2008 March 30, 2008

We participated in Earth Hour last night here in Denver. The kids (Janelle is 5 and Kincaid turned 4 yesterday) were very excited about it, way more than I expected them to be. It was amazing the quiet and that darkness that first hit our apartment after I shutdown all computers, t.v.’s, fans and lights.

We didn’t think ahead and get candles or flashlights.

Normally I shut all the lights out in the apartment and it’s not big deal… but I never realized how much light even an idle T.V., and the leds on the front a computer give off. So we made our way through our apartment using my blackberry as a flashlight. It was an amazing Spring day here so we went outside for a walk. My kids immediately asked several questions:

Where’s everyone else?

I guess they thought of it like Halloween. They expected everyone to stop their electronic lives around us and enjoy the night.

Why does everyone have their lights and t.v.’s on?

This was a harder one to answer. It seems that here in Denver, and many other places in America, the word of Earth Hour didn’t really spread. We had fun with it though, walked down to the courtyard of our complex and the kids ran around in the dark in a huge field. After about 30 minutes we got cold and headed back to the dark apartment. There we searched for jammies with my blackberry flashlight again, then we read Horton Hears a Who by the light of the phone. In the end we tucked the kids in just before the hour was over. They really seemed to like it, almost as much as a holiday.

I wondered what other experiences people had with Earth Hour and my wife found this great photo set. I was especially amazed at the pic of the baby in the NICU.

Anyway… I hope to see more American cities participate next year. It was a nice hour to get away from the Internets and the constant hum of electronics. And those pictures of major cities going dark are just surreal.