Earth Hour Sweden is Upon Us

As I sit here by the light of candles I am looking at photos and reports from around Stockholm. I chose not to turn off the computer after all, but have no desire to turn the lights back on in about 15 minutes. It is kind of nice sitting here in the semi-dark even if we often light candles and turn off the lights in winter.

Most of the places around us share the darkness, but then that could be because its Saturday night and they are out. We'll see in a few minutes if everyone turns their lights back on. It would have been cool to be in town or at a restaurant and see the lights go out - a lot of places had "candle-light dinner" on the menu tonight.

As I look around the web I see a number of people, organisations and companies have publicly declared their vote for the environment (check out this link for the buildings around Stockholm that are in the dark). Publicity and political correctness some might say, hopefully in most cases it is an honest declaration of love and concern for our earth. DN have the list too.


I turned the lights out earlier tonight when we were eating dinner, so the kids could get a feel for what it was like and we talked about earth hour and the need to care about our earth. Meanwhile the man of the house made his comments about the ridiculousness of such a campaign, that it doesn't do anything and that we need to take more concrete steps.

And true enough - it does have a gimmicky kind of feel to it - alternatively you might say it is a great concept, uniting people and it is easy to activate - on the night - but then go back to the old way of living. But the point is it is a statement and a consciousness - and anything that brings the environment to the table and starts discussions is a good thing in my books!

Let's not discuss whether or not Earth Hour is a gimmick or a worthy cause - let's discuss what we, as individuals can do to make a difference in our daily lives.

So tell me, did you turn out the lights? And are you conscious of your daily activities and their affect on the environment?