We celebrated Earth Hour in three different locations in the past three years. In all cases, we witnessed the indifference of neighbors in our immediate vicinity. I actually started writing this post in the wee hours of the morning after the event, but decided not to proceed to give some more thoughts about the disappointment the kids, Mama Sez and I felt in the recent Earth Hour.
Having known that the Philippines was number one in the past two years in terms of participation in this world event also contributed to the disappointment. Was it for real? Was it just for PR, full of noise but no substance?
When one reads carefully the claims of "resounding success", the figures actually reflect what we've been observing in the past three Earth Hour events. The estimates of at least 15 million Filipinos participating is about 15-17% of the population and that would mean only 1 out of 6 Filipinos. In 2010, we observed that ours was the only unit in a six-door apartment complex that switched the lights off. My estimate would be lower this year in our current location.
I guess we were hoping for wider participation in our own neighborhood and the high expectation turned into disappointment. My brother-in-law told us that night that Alabang households have been participating well in the past years. There might be a wide range of values in terms of percentage or degree of participation with certain communities still not seeing the impact their involvement would have in their own lives now and in the future.
It just means that we have so much to do to improve the present numbers and actually transform communities into aware and involved citizenry ready to contribute beyond the sixty minutes per year for our planet. We must realize that we are all in this together ...and together we can make it happen.
Our family has been supporting Earth Hour for the past two years. This year, it is no different and we're glad that the campaign is moving beyond the one hour a year of communal action for our planet.
With human population hitting the 7 Billion mark by the end of 2011, we should all look into what each one of us can do beyond the Earth Hour tonight (8:30 to 9:30PM when we all refrain from using electricity), and campaign for better daily practices keeping in mind our individual impact on the planet.
We will be writing about some ideas on how we can contribute beyond the one hour tonight. So please keep posted.
For now, spread the word and share this post to your friends so more people can get involved. Together we can make our planet a better and safer place to live in for all of us and our children.
After a couple of hours of play at the UPLB Freedom Park, College, Laguna, the family headed to Bonito's where the kids had pizza and the adults enjoyed the house specialty, caldereta. Because of the before dinner bread, chips and slurpee at the park, the kids' attention was not really into food. They found a hangout in front of the television in the middle of the restaurant. What's supposed to be a cool place to relax intended for college dudes and dudettes became a play area for the kids.
I was only reminded about earth hour a few minutes into 8:30 when we started to settle down in Ami's apartment. While preparing for an hour without electricity, I was checking out the neighborhood (at least those that are visible from the apartment) and was quietly hoping that majority of the houses would participate in this simple gesture of sacrificing an hour of comfort. But boy was I disappointed. Ours was the only unit in the six-door apartment building that had our lights out for the duration of the event. When I pointed it out, our eldest said that the others might not know about earth hour or perhaps they did know but didn't care.
It's basically starting with "Once upon a time..." and the next person has to continue the story to any direction he or she fancies. Our kids are getting really good at it. We were still using the familiar prince or princess theme but the plot gets more complicated and amusing at the same time. They're also quite creative about the names of the characters. The story ended with "Atlas" getting banished for asking for money for the big rock he gave as a gift to the king and annoying the princess by not offering her a gift. The part about the scroll with the secret to staying forever young taken from inside the rock when it was split into two remained undeveloped...perhaps a starting point for a later game.
Our toddler only listened to us while we weave the story. I am confident that he'll soon join in the fun as he more recently have always wanted to do whatever it is his older siblings does.
I am thankful for the opportunity to spend time with the kids and talk to them about energy conservation, the environment and climate change, as well as play a game we've always enjoyed playing when they were younger.
I remembered that one hour last year where my wife and I got a chance to talk to our kids in our balcony about the need to save energy. They were all for it and of course loved the fact that we were together watching the dark skies. It was disappointing though that majority of our neighbors were not aware or didn't care much about the campaign.
With the electricity supply problems currently experienced in many parts of the country, it is with urgency that actions, as small as turning off the lights and not using electricity for an hour, are undertaken to not only make an impact on the short-term problem of power supply, but more importantly on the long-term problem of climate change.
This year's target is 811 megawatt-hour or 5-6 million pesos worth of savings up from last year's roughly 611 megawatt-hour or 3 million pesos savings. A lot of money and energy savings in the short-term, but also a huge impact on the awareness of the next generation about the current issues of climate change...a reality that they have to face in their lifetime.
Show your support by learning more about this issue (click on the banner above), telling everyone else about it through blogs, text messages and in conversations; and on March 27 at 8:30PM, refrain from using all electrical gadgets and spend time discussing to your kids the significance of reducing power consumption.
Let's act together for our short-term and long-term survival. It's a small sacrifice to pay. Who knows, you and your kids might enjoy it as much as my family did. In that case, we can also start a campaign to turn off electrical gadgets more often than just once a year.
Related topic: Concrete Actions Parents Can Do to Help Mitigate Climate Change
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