Please take part in this year’s Earth Hour.
Check out the Earth Hour website.
(Gayle still recovering from the flu but planning to take part.)
Last year we turned off all our lights and the computers and everything we could find in the house except some appliances. We cranked up our wind-up radio and our wind-up LED Camp light and some candles and listened to music and read.
It wasn’t as quiet as the time when a hurricane blew through and we lost power for a week. One thing that power outage and Earth Hour taught me is just how much noise there is in our lives from our electronics. If you’re reading this on your laptop or PC, just listen for a moment. Do you hear the computer’s fan? Do you hear the hum of electronics? We’re so used to the background noises that we don’t even hear them anymore. But they’re there — subliminal and slightly annoying.
When the power went out, everything was off — not just the non-necessary lights and gadgets. The silence was unbelievable. In our bit of the world, our home, was only the sounds of wind rustling in the trees, birds chittering and tweeting, and that was it. Just our talking or turning a page — just the noise of life.
This year, I’ve marked the calendar and we plan to turn off all non-essential electronics again. I hope you join with all of us throughout the world to give the Earth an hour. Vote for the Earth by turning off your lights and non-essential electronics for one hour on March 28th from 8:30 PM (your local time). You’ll be amaze at what the world around you sounds like.