Earth Hour March 28, 2009 at 8:30 Pm

Heroes is one of the most popular shows on TV today. In case you haven't watched it, it is a science fiction show about ordinary people throughout the world that suddenly discover that they have extraordinary abilities. Many of the characters are amazed by their abilities. These characters are stunned that they have the ability to impact the world. Now I'm not a science fiction fan, far from it. Yet, I am intrigued by the show. It seems to speaks to that part inside which many of us have dreamt of since childhood, but few of us have attained. We want to be someone's hero. We want to impact our world. We especially want to be heroes in the eyes of our children. We need to face the ugly truth; we have left the next generation down; we are leaving them with an environment that needs to be cleaned up. We failed to clean it up for ourselves and we failed them too.

It wasn't that we didn't know that the environment was a mess. My generation were teens during the seventies. The seventy's were about getting back to nature, living off the grid, not wasting water, recycling, concern for the world's supply of energy, clean air and water. Oh, people cleaned up their act for a little while. You would have thought we would have known better. I don't know what happened to our idealistic ideas. Perhaps it was greed. Somehow many of my generation got sucked into the vast wastefulness of corporate America and sold our souls for the almighty dollar.

I'm not as naive as I once was. I know no everyone will turn their lifestyle around. I don't expect everyone to grow vegetables out their kitchen door or rent a plot of land to do so. However, I'm glad the price of gas went up. When we Americans get hit in the pocketbook, we wake up and pay attention. Well, it is time to wake up and pay attention, pocketbook aside. I hate to be dramatic, but our planet is on the edge of destruction. March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm the lights on Broadway will be out for one hour. The city of lights, Paris, will be dimming its lights as will Vatican City, and the Great Pyramids of Giza. Cities around the globe will be turning off their lights for one hour at 8:30 pm local time. The goal of the Earth Hour organization is to have 1 billion people turn off their lights for one hour to make an impact on global warming. The hope is that a message will be sent to the world leaders. The message that needs to come across is that citizens of the planet want action on climatic change."Earth Hour is an unprecedented global vote for the future of our planet," said Dr. Richard H. Moss, vice president for climate change at World Wildlife Fund, which is organizing Earth Hour. "From Indiana to Indonesia, people around the world are getting engaged, making their voices heard and telling their leaders that they want action on climate change".

Earth Hour will hopefully increase awareness of alternate of renewable sources of energy that do not pollute. It appears that some US Congressmen are on board in supporting the Earth Hour event. Congressman Barrow had this to say," This is a great example of how a relatively easy act for one family, turning off the lights, multiplied by millions worldwide, can have a positive impact by raising awareness about climate change. Maybe it'll also remind folks to turn off lights in their houses when they leave a room or go out for the day, which is good for the environment, and good for the electric bill!"

The World Wildlife Federation is sponsoring Earth Hour (www.EarthHourUS.org). The bottom line is that world citizens have a chance to have there voices, or vote, be counted that we want our leaders to do something about climate change by turning off lights for one hour on March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm local time. So if you are serious about being someone's hero start by turning off your lights for one hour. Be a hero.

Sources:

Earth Hour www.EarthHourUS.org
World Wildlife Federation www.worldwildlife.org
www.pr-inside.com/bipartisan-earth-hour-resolution-introduced-r1146885.htm