Earth Hour in the Loonie household

Saturday evening, Toronto observed Earth Hour. There were lots of events in the city to commemorate the widespread turning off of lights between 8:00 and 9:00, but Ms. Loonie and I had a fairly laid-back plan for the evening. We joined a friend of ours whose condo has a nice city view, and from 7:30 until 9:30, we munched on a buffet of crackers, cheese and fresh vegetables, and watched the changes in the lighting of the downtown skyline.

Since darkness had not fallen completely by the beginning of the hour, the effect of lights turning off at 8:00 was far less dramatic than the effect of lights turning back on after 9:00. Still, it was a nice quiet evening in a cozy, candlelit environment, with good food and good company. In fact, when the lights started coming back on at the end of the hour, we decided to keep ours off for the rest of the evening (although we did cheat a bit by checking the March Madness results on TV).

I'm not sure how much Earth Hour actually accomplishes, aside from raising awareness and giving participants a warm fuzzy feeling, but I've certainly spent less pleasant Saturday nights, and I think we'll be making this a tradition.