Thinking about Earth Hour in Ottawa and around the world

March 28, 2008 by Barbara.

First, the facts and then my thoughts:

Earth Hour
March 29, 2008
8-9 pm, local time

Earth Hour is a global initiative that was first held in Sydney, Australia by the World Wildlife Fund and the Sydney Morning Herald. The goal was to demonstrate how simple it was to reduce emissions and the associated impact on climate change.

I first read about Earth Hour about a month ago when the City of Ottawa decided to participate. There was some controversy over whether the federal buildings, especially on Parliament Hill, would participate. I haven’t seen anything one way on the other on that. I noticed on the part of the site that lists Canadian business supporters of Earth Hour 2008 that a couple regional offices of Public Works and Government Services have signed up, as has the Canadian Museum of Nature. Three of the Ontario government ministries have also signed up: Public Infrastructure Renewal, Community Support and Correctional Services, Energy. Interestingly enough, the Minister of the Environment is not listed among the participants. There are many businesses involved in the environmental field, including A Mother’s Touch Diapers and PickupPal, a ride-sharing site. I was a bit surprised to see the Weston Hotel is offering an Earth Hour special, including a presentation by the executive chef on cooking without gas or electricity and a donation of $15 per room to the World Wildlife Fund - Canada. The Minto Hospitality Group of Ottawa hotels is also participating by dimming common area lights to a minimum standard and extinguishing exterior lighting at three of their hotels (2 in Ottawa). They’ll also ask guests to participate by turning off room lights. Brookstreet, another Ottawa hotel, will be turning off non-essential lighting and dimming essential lighting where possible as well as shutting down escalator and reducing elevator service. They’ll ask guests to participate and will be offering “Canapés by Candlelight” in one of their bars.

I proposed stargazing to Ken as an activity for our hour of darkness Saturday night. It seems that this is the most popular idea of people talking about Earth Hour online. Many are also planning to play cards or board games by candlelight. One woman on the Hamilton Spectator’s site volunteered that she is planning on romance with her boyfriend from 8-9. I never would have volunteered that sort of info but she did and so I told you.

Approximately 500 Ontario schools will be observing Earth Hour today. I suspect that there will be a good “trickle down” effect when the children are all at home tomorrow night. The schools are celebrating a day early because of March 28th being a Saturday but it is a fortuitous adjustment. I didn’t hear talk of Reid’s daycare observing Earth Hour but I know they turn off the lights from 12:30 to 2:30 each day for naptime.

We’ll be celebrating somehow at our house - though 8-9 pm generally finds us with most of the lights out anyway - and we’ll be embracing the darkness as much as thinking about the climate change, I expect.

Update: I see that the Peace Tower’s face will go dark and other non-essential lights on Parliament Hill be turned off.

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