I love springtime. After the snow and cold of winter, I feel so refreshed when I see my tulips coming out of the cold, muddy ground, and leaves and blossoms bringing life to the dead-looking trees. My thoughts turn away from dreading a chaotic snowstorm drive, heating bills, and sock-and-boot covered feet, and lighten with more hopeful things: how to improve the yard, what to plant in the garden, and painting my toenails a cute shade of light blue to be shown off in flip-flops.
It’s no wonder that this is the time of year chosen to observe Earth Day (April 22). I appreciate the reminder to treat my planet more gently, especially during these hopeful weeks when I’m instinctively thinking about nature (and, yes, cute shoes, too) anyway. So, over the next few days, I’m going to subject you to my musings on conservationism, my strengths, wanna-be-strengths, and many, many weaknesses.
Some of you may have heard about or participated in Earth Hour, an event sponsored by the World Wildlife Foundation on March 28 of this year. It was the third year for this event, in which cities and individuals turned off unnecessary energy-consuming devices between 8:30-9:30 pm local time (For info see http://www.earthhour.org/). This event has been criticized by conservative media as being overly symbolic and ultimately meaningless, because one hour once a year is hardly a change.
I agree that it isn’t a change, per se, but what Earth Hour does is show us what can be done if many people commit to doing a little. Percentage-wise, participating cities saw negligible drops in energy consumption, on average 3-5% in heavily populated major cities. However, when we look at how much energy those cities use, even that small of a drop amounts to big savings. In Chicago, 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide were conserved, which is the equivalent of the hourly output of 104 acres of trees. (I wish I had that statistic in a monetary figure, since we Americans tend to think in terms of wallet-green.) Put in a global perspective, Chicago is just one city out of millions, a million people out of billions.
So, sure, Earth Hour isn’t something we can or should do every day, but as individuals, we can do our part. Turn off the lights when you’re not in a room. Don’t leave your computer on when you go home from work. Take the minute or two in the morning to get it up and running. If two people are in separate rooms watching the same show…why not spend some time together near one television? Very simple changes, made on an individual basis, can have a big impact when multiplied.
To further illustrate this point, school districts have been starting to use technology to turn off computers remotely a few hours after school has let out for the day. Larger districts (in places like Los Angeles and Houston) have reported savings between one and two million dollars in a school year. This money is being saved simply by one school district turning off computers that aren’t being used!
So, many people doing a little each certainly gets a big job done! “Many hands make light work” has been adapted for a new age of technology. And this doesn’t have to be a sideways movement, focusing on those already here. If we can teach our children to be less wasteful, they will in turn teach their children the same. Start now, and your impact could be bigger than you ever imagined.
When I first heard about Earth Hour in March 2008, I was intrigued by the idea. The results amazed me, and I committed to being less wasteful with energy. However, my resolve has wavered, more to do with my own laziness than anything else. I leave empty Glade Plug-ins plugged in, I keep our mist fountain on overnight when no one is enjoying it. I turn on the three lights in our basement, but end up really only using one. The computer is left on all the time simply because it takes approximately 4 minutes to get going (a problem which has since been alleviated by the building of a new computer). I’ll walk away from the XBox 360, leaving it on with no explanation at all. I don’t think only vacuuming once every week or two actually makes up for that wastefulness, so it seems a personal commitment renewal is in order.
So that’s what Earth Day got me thinking about this year. Stay tuned for resolutions and musings it has inspired in previous years!
It’s no wonder that this is the time of year chosen to observe Earth Day (April 22). I appreciate the reminder to treat my planet more gently, especially during these hopeful weeks when I’m instinctively thinking about nature (and, yes, cute shoes, too) anyway. So, over the next few days, I’m going to subject you to my musings on conservationism, my strengths, wanna-be-strengths, and many, many weaknesses.
Some of you may have heard about or participated in Earth Hour, an event sponsored by the World Wildlife Foundation on March 28 of this year. It was the third year for this event, in which cities and individuals turned off unnecessary energy-consuming devices between 8:30-9:30 pm local time (For info see http://www.earthhour.org/). This event has been criticized by conservative media as being overly symbolic and ultimately meaningless, because one hour once a year is hardly a change.
I agree that it isn’t a change, per se, but what Earth Hour does is show us what can be done if many people commit to doing a little. Percentage-wise, participating cities saw negligible drops in energy consumption, on average 3-5% in heavily populated major cities. However, when we look at how much energy those cities use, even that small of a drop amounts to big savings. In Chicago, 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide were conserved, which is the equivalent of the hourly output of 104 acres of trees. (I wish I had that statistic in a monetary figure, since we Americans tend to think in terms of wallet-green.) Put in a global perspective, Chicago is just one city out of millions, a million people out of billions.
So, sure, Earth Hour isn’t something we can or should do every day, but as individuals, we can do our part. Turn off the lights when you’re not in a room. Don’t leave your computer on when you go home from work. Take the minute or two in the morning to get it up and running. If two people are in separate rooms watching the same show…why not spend some time together near one television? Very simple changes, made on an individual basis, can have a big impact when multiplied.
To further illustrate this point, school districts have been starting to use technology to turn off computers remotely a few hours after school has let out for the day. Larger districts (in places like Los Angeles and Houston) have reported savings between one and two million dollars in a school year. This money is being saved simply by one school district turning off computers that aren’t being used!
So, many people doing a little each certainly gets a big job done! “Many hands make light work” has been adapted for a new age of technology. And this doesn’t have to be a sideways movement, focusing on those already here. If we can teach our children to be less wasteful, they will in turn teach their children the same. Start now, and your impact could be bigger than you ever imagined.
When I first heard about Earth Hour in March 2008, I was intrigued by the idea. The results amazed me, and I committed to being less wasteful with energy. However, my resolve has wavered, more to do with my own laziness than anything else. I leave empty Glade Plug-ins plugged in, I keep our mist fountain on overnight when no one is enjoying it. I turn on the three lights in our basement, but end up really only using one. The computer is left on all the time simply because it takes approximately 4 minutes to get going (a problem which has since been alleviated by the building of a new computer). I’ll walk away from the XBox 360, leaving it on with no explanation at all. I don’t think only vacuuming once every week or two actually makes up for that wastefulness, so it seems a personal commitment renewal is in order.
So that’s what Earth Day got me thinking about this year. Stay tuned for resolutions and musings it has inspired in previous years!
1 comment:
Ang,
Thanks for the great reminders. The computer one is hard for me too. However, moving into our new home kind of forced us to start worrying about this kind of stuff. Both with trying to conserve everything due to bills and also recycling. They give you a huge recycling dumpster thing, but the garbage ones are tiny. I thought we would have to upgrade with all the trash our family has, but actually we fit in the small one just fine now that we recycle almost everything. I always thought it would be hard to recycle or take too much thought or something, but it's not at all. Even the boys do it without me having to ask. Don't you compost?? Thats awesome.
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