Power-down

I can't say I'm a big fan of the Starbucks Coffee Company. They often figuratively and literally leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Lights out

However, on this night, at Earth Hour, they're setting a good example. Here in suburbia, every other business seemed to be lighting up the night sky. Certainly downtown, it was much more obvious.

Although there was a city-wide drop in power consumption of some 8%, the main point of it all is awareness. For my part, on Saturday night I would normally have just one lamp and the TV on in the living room, and maybe one kitchen light. So it didn't make too much of a difference for me to head out for a walk.

I'm not sure how many of my neighbours were participating, or if they just weren't home. In one non-representative row of 16 homes, I counted only two with lights on during the event (one with seemingly all lights on, as if in protest). At the end of the one hour, five more were lit up, leaving nine which were probably empty all evening.