This past weekend was the yearly worldwide Earth Hour event. Since the early 2000s people in cities all over the world shut off all their electricity for one hour from 8:30-9:30pm. Several cities do it big and turn off their landmarks including the San Francisco bridge and the Las Vegas strip. The purpose of the event is to bring awareness to how much we rely on electricity and the devastation that occurs from harvesting the oil and coal to make it. Google mountaintop removal for some eye opening videos of how we harvest coal.
This year I was with my brother and his family and we decided to make couch forts and sing some of my silly camp songs. Although our lights were off their apartment complex has soo many lights on that it was light enough to see dimly. The boys had a blast but cut out early for bed. During the remaining time I thought about the things I could live without and the things I couldn’t in my everyday life. Here is my list:
Live without:
Tv.
Lights.
Can not live without:
Refrigerator.
Hot water.
Heat.
My phone.
If I had to live without electricity I would definitely be moving to the equator. I hate being cold. Also I’ve become attached to my phone. I know it. I love having access to my emails, the Internet and much more at my fingertips. Living so far from friends and family isn’t so bad when you can face time and send pics and videos.
And a refrigerator. A cooler just wouldn’t cut it especially in the summer. If I lived in a warm climate year round where I could constantly be growing food then I could eat off the trees but as of now my fridge is packed. And I do not have the farm to eat off of it everyday.
So what to do? Use electricity less. Choose sustainable energy. Have more earth hours on my own. Build more couch forts.
I love the yearly reminder and seeing lots of people around the world participating. We don’t have to make huge changes. Little ones work if we all do it.
I’m in.