Earth Hour

Did you take part in the Earth Hour? I did. Well, it was pretty easy, because I wasn't home, so I had no lights to turn off/on.
I was at the free concert at Nathan Phillips square where Nelly Furtado, Fefe Dobson and The Philosopher Kings played. I'm not the most up to date with pop music, so the fact that I recognized a lot of the songs made me think that they were playing old songs that were very popular, but I guess appealed to the demographic of the audience. There was a pretty good turnout for the concert which is always nice to see. I like events like this.
The countdown to 8pm was pretty cute. I guess most of us were expecting everything to go completely dark. That there would be a marked difference in lighting. NOPE. I guess you kind of forget about the lights that will stay on regardless of the situation. Street lights. Car headlights. Hotels didn't seem to partake as much. Shops as well probably didn't participate as much because they closed earlier and many stores leave their lights on overnight to create a look and let potential clients see the best of the store even on the off hours. And of course the stores closed hours earlier and the managers probably wouldn't stay around for an hour just to turn the lights off.
While standing in Nathan Phillips Square, the crowd naturally turned to the building with the most lights on prior to 8pm to see if the lights would all go off at the right time. The BMO building to our south was the one. A big boo rose from the crowd when the lights didn't go off after the crowd's countdown. I glanced at the big tower clock of the old parliament building and apparently we were four minutes early. I forget when it happened, but all of a sudden most of the lights in the BMO building did get switched off to the cheers of the crowd. There were still a lot of lights on in buildings...boooooooooo and you know what? That one hour passed really quickly. I guess lights off for one hour is better than nothing, but seriously, why don't big office buildings turn their lights off at night and/or on weekends? I guess there are a couple workaholics that need light, but there's got to be a way to conserve energy.
Oh, and I saw stars. I'm sure that you can see starts in Toronto on a regular basis, but I just remember seeing a whole bunch and being happy that I did.
Anyway, it was a great way to raise awareness and bring some communities together. Hopefully kids will urge their parents to turn off the lights more often - even on non-organized days. It's funny what triggers kids to get obsessed with little ideas. I'm hoping adults keep it in mind as well and try to conserve energy where possible, but I guess it's just the nature of my profession - being optimistic and looking for the best in our youth!