Did you hear about Earth Hour 2008? More importantly, did you participate?

Anybody who hasn’t heard about it yet is even more in the dark than the thousands of people who switched off their lights last March 29, 8:00-9:00 PM in a show of support for the battle against climate change.

People from all over the world plunged into the darkness for one whole hour to save energy, and consequently reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Even Nelly Furtado said ‘Turn Out the Light’, and Google embraced the blackness!)

I pledged my participation to EarthHour.org about a month ago, which I chanced upon while slaving away researching for our final presentation in the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards. Since we started on that project, I’ve honestly been more conscious about having a greener lifestyle. Besides, don’t you feel it? The weather is going berserk–you step out of your house dressed for the scorching heat (yet your sweat glands still go on overdrive)–the next thing you know, you’re needing a jacket and an umbrella because the rain just won’t let up. Hello, Global Warming, don’t you think you’re getting a little too friendly?

Meeting in the Dark

We were going to have an overnight school org meeting on that same date, so since we were staying in another house, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to join in this event. But I was surprised that the parents of my friend were even the ones who reminded us that we should observe Earth Hour even if we were having a meeting. So by 8:00 in the evening, there we were–11 people cramped in the bedroom, talking, discussing and making decisions in the dark. Our only source of light were 2 laptops running on batteries.

The Philippines Joins In

And was I wrong when I thought that there wouldn’t be many Filipinos who’d want to be in on this. Here are also some pictures of Manila switching off (courtesy of Monsters and Critics):

Check out news from The Philippine Daily Inquirer and WWF Philippines.
Earth Hour Live writes about the success of the event in Manila:

“ON March 29th, from 8:00pm to 9:00pm, the Philippine Capital of Manila and more than 30 cities nationwide joined the world for Earth Hour. The entire stretch of Roxas Boulevard – spanning three cities – was plunged into darkness to symbolize unity in fighting climate change. … Rarely have the Filipino people been roused to such levels. … A developing nation of 7107 isles. A people working together to make a difference in the growing fight against global warming.”

It Isn’t Enough 

However, some think the Earth Hour is not as successful as everyone so glowingly thinks it to be. Vaes9 of Manila says that many residents weren’t informed, a sentiment echoed by a commenter on Green Daily.

Patrick Metzger of Green Daily proposes an activity for Earth Hour 2009: Let’s Stop Driving. I agree that this one’s gonna be pretty hard to implement, and will be hell for me (my school’s worth an hour’s drive). But for one whole hour of silent streets, less pollution and decreased greenhouse gas emissions—why not?

The recently concluded Earth Hour is, and should just be, a symbol for our willingness to modify our lifestyles so that we and our children and grandchildren can continue to live on this Earth. It shouldn’t hinder us from having our own little Earth Hours. Or just do something everyday to help save energy. Why not try setting your homepage to Blackle? It’s basically Black + Google, and its creators at Heap Media say:

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.” Roberson et al, 2002 

I’m coming up with my 101 things to do in 1001 days list, and I think I’m going to include something on this and energy saving in general.
Because I have a confession to make: I’m all of 19, and I’m still scared to sleep with the lights off.

So now I have to decide what I’m more scared of: a ghost coming to eat me, or the accelerating pace of Mother Earth’s deterioration.