Website:  Earth Hour

Planet Earth is our only home in the Universe.  Our human species is the most advanced of the animals on this planet.  The modern age with electricity and technology has built many cities and machines.  Many inventions such as the television, computer, automobile, telephone, light bulb, refrigerator, stove, heater, air conditioner, etc. make it easier to survive.  But these appliances need energy to run.  Those who are living in the modern parts of the world are enjoying this lifestyle with machines.  But the environment is being depleted and poisoned by the use of energy sources such as coal and oil and their emissions, and garbage wastes from packaging and food are filling land sites despite recycling and composting measures.  Movies such as Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore have become popular and are affecting consumer consciousness, lifestyles and tastes.  The guilt trip can lead to: changing light bulbs to lower wattage to conserve energy or turning off unnecessary lights; walking and cycling instead of driving to nearby locations; sorting packaging by materials -- plastic, glass, paper, metal instead of putting into garbage bins; and so forth...  I decided to stay home alone and light a tea light candle and turn off the lights during Earth Hour instead of going to Nathan Phillips Square where it would be celebrated.  One tea light costs less than 10 cents and burns for 4 to 6 hours.  Being a computer internet addict, I usually am online when I am home but turning it off to meditate on Earth Hour was a spiritual break.  I thought of the countries and poor who have not modernized and of how life was before the electrical age back to the age of dinosaurs.  I wondered if one day, humankind would no longer be in existence and our fossilized skeletons, rusting machines and cities would be left over for the next creation.  Perhaps we should try to save our environment and health and practise conservation of energy and resources to prolong our life on planet Earth!