Thanks largely in part to Al Gore, it has become nearly impossible to deny the reality of global warming. However, knowing isn’t enough; action is required in order to begin a reversal of the damage done to our planet. Most people are unaware of just how easy it is to do this.
This is the focus of Earth Hour, a now annual event which encourages businesses and consumers to turn off the power for one hour as a simple way of saving energy. The event began in Australia in 2007 and this years aims to become global. You can participate by turning off your lights, computer, TV, etc., from 8pm-9pm local time TONIGHT, March 29, 2008.
Even Google has joined in to encourage participation by symbolically “turning off the lights” on its homepage. The site also links to a page with more information on Earth Hour.
So don’t just say you care about the planet tonight. PROVE IT.
jessica vitak, phd 
So what? Google changed the colour of their page. I would have been MUCH more impressed with them had they powered down their energy greedy servers for an hour leaving only one to state that they’d be back at 9:01pm their time.
This earth hour stuff is all bull.
Getting everyone to turn stuff off for one hour isn’t going to help the earth that much, in fact it may even cause MORE DAMAGE !!
For example: Imagine an average family of 4 and their usual night. Perhaps this family walks to the local convenience store and rents a video to watch together every Sat night. They use a highly efficient microwave to nuke some leftovers and plop down in front of the TV for two hours with no other lights on because you can see the movie better that way.
This week, this hypothetical family decides to “do the earth hour thing” with a few neighbors. They drive to the grocery store and purchase alot of meat and prepared foods like sweets/deserts, potato salad, and chips. They burn who knows how much propane to cook the factory-farmed meat they eat off paper or even Styrofoam plates. They use candles made from petroleum, or lamps powered by batteries or oil to light the party… And whatever doesn’t get eaten, will wind up in big plastic garbage bags to be taken to the dump.
All this earth hour stuff is just another way for the average man to feel like he’s doing something good while making a mess.
Actively choosing to turn down your thermostat a few degrees in the winter and up a few in the summer would save MUCH more energy than turning off all your electrical stuff for an hour each year.
Actively choosing to REDUCE and REUSE would mean that the little that you do need to RECYCLE can be done in a cost effective manor.
Actively choosing to compost your food scraps would not only save you money on fertilizer for your lawn each year, but would return the nutrients to the earth where they belong instead of trapping them in plastic bags buried under other garbage in a dump.
Choose wisely in your day to day actions, and you’ll do so much more for the world than any STUNT like “Earth Hour”.