(h)our earth....

Saturday was earth hour & i religiously switched off my electricity for an hour, eating by candle-light... Looking out of my house, though, i was aghast... the rest of the world was lit as usual..

Inspite of our media taking up the issue with great fervour, i could see it had little impact. So what went wrong? Why were all those people completely insensitive to the earth hour? I haven't seen much of the media campaign other than excerpts from last year's sydney earth hour. I believe they completely missed (though i cant confirm this, as i couldnt have seen tv all the time) the concept of earth hour. If we are trying to save some CO2 pollution by switching our lights, then was the whole idea even conveyed?

Also, i was hardly a willing partner to the whole idea. My skepticism arises from the fact that there may be better ways to reduce CO2 consumption on a regular basis, rather than such rare mass-movements. Our government does try hard to advertise use of CFLs over incandescent bulbs, switching off engines at traffic lights, switching off electronic items on standby and the likes. I believe the campaign is true at heart, but for some weird reason, nobody (in the media) wants to take it up voluntarily. Maybe, it has no "scoop" value. Anything that is regular becomes too ordinary to discuss & unfortunately our media thrives on new scoops.

So, how about an earth year? How about we decide that for the next 365 days we will:

1. switch off our electricity for half hour (one hour is too much, & those with power cuts are exempted)

2. switch off our engines at intersections

3. switch off all electronic items that have standby mode, and move our bums to start them only when we need them, rather than use the remote (aka tv, audio systems, laptops, etc etc)

4. remove chargers from sockets when not in use & switch off the plugs

5. drive at optimal speeds (upto 60km/h i believe) & not accelerate too fast & brake too hard

6. use the stairs atleast once daily instead of using the elevator (even downstairs helps!)

7. switch off our computers when not in use / atleast switch off screens when leaving the desk (even laptops have buttons to switch off screens)

8. promote (& use if possible) solar heating & lighting

9. close doors / windows when using air conditioners (ensure place is almost air-tight) & draw curtains to reduce heat load on the room (those with glass walled offices may demand partitions / dark +thick curtains)

10. reduce daylighting by using / creating ventilators in the room to allow ambient sunlight

These are things that hardly need an effort & yet can save enormous amounts of electricity & subsequently reduce CO2 pollution. For those of you who are really concerned, please go ahead & try these out! One radical point that i missed out : "Bicycle your way to the office / use public transport!!"

Dont look at me, i'm not the one who wants to save the world! Dont expect me to do this for the next 365 days! Besides, advice is always free! :P