Sunday, March 30, 2008

Earth Hour 2008 - my first post :)


We turned off the lights on March 29 for one hour. Well, it might have been an hour and some minutes...










I live in Bucharest, capital city of Romania and I am sorry to say that on my street, in my neighbourhood, lights were on everywhere. Not much publicity was made for this event and given the fact that here, if people are not told every second something, they hardly take the time to react, not many people joined the initiative...


Still, I turned off the lights, the computer and didn't use the microwave. From time to time I felt the impulse, or even the reflex, of turning on the light whenever I entered a room, although I had the candle in my hands.


We have some four or five blackouts here in Bucharest per year, so staying for one hour in the dark was not that unfamiliar. What was indeed strange was the fact that I could have switched on the TV any second and I didn't. I could have surffed the internet and I didn't. I could see no futher than the strech of my hand and the candle light and I didn't turned on the lights.


And it's such a great thing... being able to do all these and choosing not to do them.


And now imagine that some 20 years ago, in Romania people were living in the dark without having a choice...hmm...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Lavinia!

Just wanted to drop by and say hello :)

As for "Earth hour", i just forgot about it and kept my lights on, but I'll turn them off tonight... I guess any hour of power save is as important as "earth hour", not necessarily as a statement, but for our planet.

Lavinia said...

Hey,

Thanks for saying hello! Right back at you! I guess turning off the lights on any day has the same effect and importance.