Earth Hour

tonight was earth hour organized by the world wildlife fund and t.o. was part of this year's celebration ( http://www.wwf.ca/earthhour/canada.html ). it was amazing. i saw shops today with handmade signs in their window that said things like "parkdale powers down for the earth" and "toronto celebrates earth hour". i so love toronto. they are so progressive and really care about the environment even though they're not really the ones who are polluting the earth (that would be the americans).

sure enough, i happened to log onto google.com at 8:05 and their screen was black. it said "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour." so i looked out my window and sure enough, the city was almost completely dark. i saw people turning off their lights in my building and it almost brought a tear to my eye. we can make a difference!! yes!

there were candlelit walks all over the city, restaurants hosting dinners by candelight, and "earth hour" parties everywhere.

some fun facts about earth hour 2008 in canada:

- 170 cities participated across the country
- canada made up 1/3 of earth hour participants around the world
- by turning off the lights for the hour, 7% of the electricity that would have been used from the grid was saved.
- 1,500,000 homes are estimated to have participated in ontario alone (i was one of them)
- nelly furtado gave a free concert at toronto city hall for earth hour

what a great event - i hope houston will try to participate next year!