I got an F in Earth Science

Written by Alanna Morley

I must make a confession... on March 28^th at 8:30 pm, I did not participate in Earth Hour. My lights were on, I was home, I was watching TV, doing a load of laundry, my laptop was charging and I was boiling water in my plug in kettle.

And I did not feel one ounce of guilt.

Why is that?

In fact, I even had a little conversation with myself hours earlier about the possibility of participating.

And I still didn’t.

I remember sitting on my couch, glancing down at my phone looking at a glowing 8:47pm, looking out the window towards the neighbours house, whose lights were also on, and I went right back to watching TV.

Perhaps had the neighbour’s lights been off, I too would have momentarily considered it.

I was a sheep....Well, maybe not a sheep, but at least lazy.

Yes, I was lazy. Perhaps had Earth Hour happened at 11:30pm, it would have been easier for people like me, the lazy, to participate. I would have been already snug in bed, power off, and participating without really...participating.

But that’s not the point of Earth Hour is it? It’s about a person’s conscious effort to take one hour out of their day, once a year, in the evening, to reflect about our own carbon foot print.

So why didn’t I care? Why didn’t my neighbour care?

Did you care?

At the end of the day, some 17 hrs, perhaps Earth Hour did cause at least a few minutes of reflection as I sit here with my TV still running, the lights on, typing away at my laptop, I am actually considering all the appliances and conveniences that are currently operating in my home. And off the top of my head I can count 25 objects currently plugged in at my house.

Oh wait, my phone is charging... so 26.

Perhaps I can unplug a few? Does my toaster need to be plugged in all day? The can opener? The wii?

All these electrical objects are probably in some way contributing negatively to my own carbon foot print... and my electrical bill.

In fact, I just calculated my personal carbon foot print... My family of 4 emits 6.18 tons of carbon dioxide a year. On the whole, based on the Canadian averaged of 20 tons a year, I’m actually not doing to badly.

Essentially, I emit the equivalent to one elephant in cardon dioxide a year, and if I wanted to work towards meeting the world target of reducing my footprint I need to emit a walrus.

Perhaps that is my greater goal? I fail miserably at the simple task of turning my lights off for Earth Hour, but instead I work towards the greater goal of achieving the walrus.

Coo coo ca choo. iStock_000010998388XSmall