Alice Pawley is an assistant professor of 
SciWo is an assistant professor of geosciences. She blogs about the intersection of science and real life - primarily based on her first-hand experiences. Her older posts can be found For Earth Hour, I had hoped we'd get a chance for a walk in the gloaming, but the day got away from us. My husband was just getting back from his run (alone) and I was just getting dinner started at 8 pm our time. We lit candles as it got too dark to see, and he did the crossword while I made curry.
We kept the lights off for another hour after dinner, and only reluctantly turned one back on in order to not trip over any furniture and catch the house on fire. We didn't notice any of our neighbors' lights off.
What did you do for Earth Hour?
Environment
Comments
Thanks for asking Prof. Pawley. Your crossword by candlelight photos are beautiful and suggest the nuance and beauty of words. People communicating together may be a step closer towards solving these world puzzles.
This was our response to Earth Hour at ValleyZen.
Posted by: Drue Kataoka | March 30, 2008 12:35 AM
Our family spent the evening playing games by candlelight. we stretched the electricity free evening out to 10:40 before we resorted to lights again for bedtime rituals.
Posted by: eric | March 30, 2008 12:58 AM
Earth Hour is idiotic... and dangerous. By stated facts, dividing down Australia's gross national product, if every city in Australia were to participate in Earth Hour it would cost an estimated $50,000,000.00 in lost productivity, even at night. That is the salary of 1000 jobs for an entire year! All to stave off how much pollution exactly?
Enough to fill one medium sized thimble. That's right.
That is the consequence of Gunpoint Environmentalism: Poverty.
Posted by: Sheila | March 30, 2008 3:54 AM
Who the hell estimated that? And why would you believe it? I was at work at the time, and it didn't make us grind to a halt. The idea is for non-essential stuff to be turned off, in case you somehow missed the whole freaking point. If you need light for safety or work, you keep it on.
Duh.
If people turned crap off that they don't need, it'd mean less demand on power, and hence cheaper power. But... oh noes! Everyone knows that cheap power is the road to poverty!
Never posted on this blog before, SW. Am I allowed to call people idiots here?
Posted by: SmellyTerror | March 30, 2008 5:58 AM
We pulled out a hand-cranked radio we have for power outages -- delighted to find the local NPR station running a Studio One radio play from the 1940s. We enjoyed the radio program so much, we extended Earth Hour an extra 30 min to hear the end!
Posted by: Jen | March 30, 2008 12:55 PM
I think Earth Hour can call to remembrance that certain items truly are luxuries that we do not need. I've been recently investigating ways to reduce my energy use as it relates to my appliances. I also consider it to be a victory when my energy bill is about half of the previous year average even though I am home quite often.
I'm glad that you enjoyed the NPR program Jen!
Posted by: Academic | March 30, 2008 2:34 PM
I went to a community pot luck. We sat around a picnic table in the dark, with a few wind up torches, solar powered hat and candles for company, and talked about stuff.
Great fun.
Posted by: Rachel | March 30, 2008 10:13 PM
I was home alone with my 9 month-old son, and earth hour fell very close to his bedtime. I turned everything off but a night-light (he's fascinated by candles to the point of distraction) and nursed and cuddled him to sleep.
Posted by: Joy | March 31, 2008 1:35 PM