Today, Earth Hour will be celebrated around the world and, like every year, we will participate as well. Only this year, we will also be celebrating its 10 year anniversary.

What is Earth Hour?

According to the website, it was started in 2007 by WWF-Australia with more than 2.2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses turning out their lights for the first event.

“Earth Hour is a symbolic action. It is an initiative to encourage individuals, businesses, and governments around the world to take accountability for their ecological footprint and engage in dialogue and resource exchange that provides real solutions to our environmental challenges.”

Andy and I celebrate Earth Hour each year to remind ourselves of just how much we use and take from the environment. It is a time for us to unplug, to turn off, and to recognize the things we take advantage of.

“A record-breaking 178 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour 2016, with about 12,700 participating landmarks. Millions of people switched their lights off for an hour, and the Earth Hour 2016 campaign saw close to 2.5 million individual actions being taken to help.”

That’s a pretty amazing turnout and we are happy to be a part of it.

In our home, we switched off power strips and unplugged anything that was unnecessary. We sat by candlelight in our living room talking, instead of being on our phones. Though only an hour, we often extended this longer, realizing the value we held in each other’s company when we decided to disconnect.

In our RV, we do things a bit differently. Our first step is to put our RV into “store” mode, which means that there is no energy draw whatsoever.

The second thing we do — because it is only an hour and will not really effect what we have — is to switch our refrigerator off so that it does not automatically switch to using propane. After all, that is still using a resource.

It’s really that simple. We turn everything off and then we spend time together (a novel idea in today’s world, I know). We do not drive anywhere and we do not do anything that contributes to power use. An eventual goal of ours is to be self-sustaining and energy independent. Though we are slowly moving down that path and are developing a 10 year plan for independence, Earth Hour is a way to remind ourselves.

“Remember, Earth Hour is not only about turning off our lights once a year. It symbolizes our commitment to take immediate and collective action to change climate change. Every small action, when combined with millions of others, has a huge, tangible impact.”

#changeclimatechange

Earth Hour will take place tonight from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Consider turning off your lights tonight, just for one hour.

Quotes found at: www.earthhour.org

Earth image taken from google