Earth Hour 2009 poster[Earth Hour 2009](http://www.earthhour.org) is now less than a week away (Saturday 28 March 2009, 8:30-9:30 pm). I’m proud to see that Kiama Council is once again on the list of supporting councils. Poor old Gav over at The Greening of Gavin is still [trying to get his council involved](http://greeningofgavin.blogspot.com/2009/03/participating-in-earth-hour-2009.html)!

I’m not sure yet what we’ll do. Maybe we’ll turn our lights off a bit earlier so the kids can join in, and play board games by the light of a candle.

On the topic of candles, Gerringong sustainable home products seller Eco Manifesto has specials on [Queen B 100% beeswax candles](http://www.ecomanifesto.com.au/index.php?page=showproducts&cat=6&subcat=11) this month, to help you celebrate Earth Hour 2009 with style and perhaps a little romance. Beeswax is a natural wax, much better for the environment and healthier for you than the normal petrochemical-based candles.

If you’re looking for ways your business or school can get involved in Earth Hour, check out these [info packs](http://www.earthhourau.org/toolkits). There are also packs there for individuals, councils, churches, sporting groups, and just about every type of organisation.

If you’re a blogger, there are buttons, banners, widgets and more in the [blogger downloads](http://www.earthhour.org/downloads/) section.

Don’t forget to [sign up](http://www.earthhour.org/signup/default:en) to register your participation. Sign-ups are an important way to judge the level of support this event is getting within the community, and gives them some weight when lobbying governments for change.

So what are your plans? Share your great ideas in the comments below! I’d be especially keen to hear of any events planned in the Illawarra region.

11 Comments

  1. Hi Darren

    I too am keeping an eye out for any scheduled events around the region, but haven’t found any to date!

    I look forward to Earth Hour each year – as my kids are a little older we have a few things planned when we turn off the lights, “gizmo’s”/household appliances etc. If there’s no events on that are close by (don’t really want to have to drive!) We will be:

    Doing an indoor “camping by candlelight” with the kids!

    Drawing – using the shadows from the candles to draw our silhouettes

    Some “word” games (ie. Boys names, girls names, cities etc that start with letter A etc) and other similar games

    Tell stories (one of us starts then the next person continues etc)

    Discussing WHY we have turned the lights off!

    I hope everyone who participates has a great Earth Hour!

    Cheers
    Chrissy

    • @Chrissy: Great ideas! Do let me know if you find any events in our area.

      @Wilson: Great to hear you’ve signed up too. I wonder how the total is going now? It must be huge with all the publicity I’ve been seeing.

  3. I looking forward to it too!

    One of the things you can do during Earth hour is star gazing!
    You might not think much of that, but most cities have so much light pollution that many of the constellations are obscured.

    How about laying a picnic mat in the backyard and try to spot some less obvious southern hemisphere constellations or maybe some shooting stars!

    It would be a perfect time to go for a run too! But i doubt council would be participating and turning off the street lights. –I probably don’t want them too either, for safety reasons.

    • @Edwin: Councils and businesses are only turning off “non-essential” lighting. So hopefully you won’t run into a power pole or anything on the night! Good idea about the stargazing.

  4. Hi Darren,

    So far so good, as there are nearly one billion of people from 1,000 cities all around the world will take part in this upcoming Earth Hour 2009.

    By the way, it’s less than 30 hours until the countdown moment, Darren. Are you ready for it? 🙂

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