Earth Hour 2021: 13th year

This was the first year in quite a few where we are spending Earth Hour without our beloved asshole.  We've brought him out to the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui a couple of times, where he was pretty popular with the ladies, and last year we looked longingly at DaRC as we grilled our steak at home.  That would be his last Earth Hour on earth.

The Covid-19 pandemic is still with us, so we decided against crossing the harbor for the annual observation.  The Quarry Bay Promenade Pet Garden isn't far from us, and we decided we'd take CC out for a stroll under the stars.

As it was a nice evening, there was a good amount of traffic going through the park, with dogs and their owners, joggers, and just ordinary folks out for a stroll.

I didn't have the usual view of Central Hong Kong as in past years, but most office buildings nearby - including ones in Taikoo Place - turned off their lights and signage.  Across the harbor most of the commercial buildings also went dark.  The notable exceptions seemed to be the giant J.P. Morgan LEDs on top of The Quayside in Kowloon Bay, and those LEDs on the sides of The Masterpiece / Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui.

We spent about an hour in the pet garden, and CC got to greet/play with a few dogs she normally wouldn't see in our hood.  I think she was pretty happy about having taken this extended walk to a new destination.

Since the last Earth Hour, there have been plusses and minuses in terms of the impact on planet earth.  While the drastic reduction of travel has certainly helped reduce consumption of fossil fuels, the massive increase of food/goods deliveries have negated that somewhat.  We've also seen massive increase in terms of packaging that gets dumped into landfills as a result of the aforementioned deliveries, which would include a ton of single-use plastic.  Finally, even just within our household, we've dumped over 700 surgical masks into our landfills in the last year, although we do keep food deliveries to a minimum ourselves.  

None of this is doing our home - planet earth - any good.  Sadly, very few people around me seem to care.  Most people want the short-term convenience, without caring about the long-term damage that is done.  SIGH.