Earth Hour 2011

Earth Hour 2011 was a success for me, despite some minor difficulties. I started planning for Earth Hour several months in advance this year, and everything went according to plan. However, our participation in Earth Hour almost had to be canceled when, with about forty eight minutes left before the Hour’s commencement, my dad wanted to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream. With still over 45 minutes left on the Earth Hour countdown, I was sure we would be able to return home in time to turn our lights off at the beginning of the Hour, and I thought that was his plan. It wasn’t until we were almost out the door when my dad revealed to me he didn't think it was enough time to walk to and return from the DQ two blocks away. He wanted to turn the lights off early and then stay there for the entire Hour. At this point I was ready to execute the plans I had been fabricating for the last few months. I had already activated all of the lights in and around the house for a clear contrast when they would be turned off when the Hour began. I wanted to turn the lights off at exactly 8:30, but my dad wanted to turn them off early and spend the entire Hour at Dairy Queen.

I’m not sure why he thought I’d be OK with disregarding all of my plans to make a video of Earth Hour and spend the whole time at Dairy Queen. I’d already shared my plans with him, which included a walk around the block to see which houses in our neighborhood were also observing Earth Hour. Maybe he wanted me to think we’d be home in time, and that’s why he conveniently neglected to mention that we wouldn’t be home in time until we were almost out the door. Unfortunately he let slip his true intentions before we had left, so obviously he needs to work on his lying. When I told him I wanted to stay home to make my Earth Hour video, he got upset and fell asleep on the couch. He remained asleep for the entire duration of Earth Hour and can be heard snoring loudly throughout the entire Earth hour video.

This year, we were at a new location, different from the one we observed Earth Hour 2010 at. This location has a lot more exterior lights. We also had control of the exterior lights at the front of the house, unlike last year, where I tripped the motion sensor and ended up inadvertently turning on the porch light when I went outside to check which other houses were observing Earth Hour.

I had found a powerful, flexible web based countdown application which could display a large, red countdown on my computer monitor, reminiscent of the ones seen on bombs in spy movies. The countdown ran in Firefox on my computer, which was connected to a monitor in the living room, visible to all occupants of the house. I had two countdowns open in two tabs in Firefox. The first would first count to the beginning of Earth Hour, and once the Hour started I’d discreetly click on the second tab to show the time we had before Earth Hour was over.

Exactly ten minutes into the Hour, I went for a quick walk around the block. Last year I had only walked to the tip of the driveway and looked at our street from there. This year I circled around the block. Plenty of houses still had their lights on. Many houses had grand lighting systems fancier than ours, with small floodlights illuminating the driveway and more lights along the path leading up to the house. One house had a light above each window. Many houses did have their lights off, but it would be inaccurate to assume everyone house that was dark was observing Earth Hour. Many residents are just too cheap to turn on any exterior or interior lights. Especially here in Richmond, where many most all of the residents are Asian.

Returning home to our dark house, my dad continued to snore away on the couch as I expected. 42 minutes were remaining on the clock, indicating my walk had taken eight minutes. The truth is, after all the planning and anticipation which I enjoy, the actual Hour of darkness is quite boring. I went on Facebook for most of the remainder of the hour. I never turn my computer off during Earth Hour since I don’t think it uses as much energy as the lights and wouldn’t be significant.
One thing I forgot to do, with the pressures of Earth Hour upon me, was to read our electricity meter prior to the start of Earth Hour. I had planned to record the figure on the meter at the beginning of the Earth Hour and compare it to another reading following the conclusion of Earth Hour, but between making sure the lights were off as close as possible to 8:30, arguing with my dad about DQ, and making my Earth Hour video, I completely forgot. I’ll try to remember next year.

At the conclusion of the hour, 9:30, I switched our lights back on. I started with the exterior lights at the front of the house (facing the road) and then turned on the porch lights at the side of the house. I then went to turn on the light on the rear porch, and turned on all the lights in the house in between. All the lights in every room, even empty rooms, were switched on. Lights in rooms which weren’t needed would be turned off shortly after 9:30, but for now, they all had to be on to signal the end of the annual hour of darkness. The video shows me turning every single light on with This Little Light playing, a tradition I started in last year’s Earth Hour video.

Here is the video. My dad can be heard snoring during the entire duration of the video (except for when I went out for a walk around the neighborhood.)