Earth Hour 2014

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For the sixth year in a row, I participated in Earth Hour.  I'd already ranted enough about Earth Hour and the message behind it last year, and argued why it is important to all of us humans to conserve energy, so I'm not going to repeat it.  I will just say how pleased I am to see more and more of the world being aware of this and that more people are participating.  This one hour alone may not save a whole lot of energy, but it is symbolically important because it brings about awareness.

This past year I had been good in terms of energy-saving.  Unfortunately I had not been so good about reducing waste.  While I continue to shy away from buying and consuming drinks in plastic bottles and containers, I had, in fact, increased waste generation somewhat thanks to my diet program.  This is being remedied.

But nowadays I always carry my environmental-friendly shopping bag (with a picture of the young Flocke) wherever I go, and have cut down bag wastage massively.  I don't always carry my own water bottle, but I do have a pair of plastic chopsticks in every bag that I own and carry around.

Tonight I went out for a quick dinner, and made sure I was done by 7:30 p.m. After spending about an hour strolling around, I started jogging in my neighborhood park just before Earth Hour started at 8:30 p.m.  I jogged for an hour until Earth Hour ended.  I couldn't think of a better way to spend Earth Hour than to exercise out under the stars and burning off some calories.

During this year's Earth Hour, my apartment was dark.  I turned off most of my appliances - including cutting power to them - and the only thing that was drawing power was basically my fridge, and perhaps my work computer in the office.  I even turned all my cell phones (and yes, I have more than one...) off so they wouldn't consume any power.  For the first time in a long time, I went jogging without listening to music on my iPhone.  And I took no picture during Earth Hour.

I still turn off the lights when a certain part of my office is not in use.  I have chided my staff so that they turn off the Nespresso machine right after their cup of coffee is made.  Unfortunately I haven't gotten them to remember to turn their monitors off whenever they leave the office, like I do.  So there's still room for improvement...