Earth Hour is held 20:30-21:30 hours (8:30-9:30 p.m.) in your time zone on the last Saturday of March. This year it will be March 25. This symbolic day is observed in order to conserve energy and draw the world’s attention to the decline of the environment due to human practices. Here are 10 creative Earth Hour Activities, Preparation Suggestions, and Follow Up Ideas. Give Earth Hour a try. You’ll get to save on your electric bill, turn off the TV, and spend some quality time with family, friends, and sometimes strangers. Earth Hour 2017: Welcome To The Dark Side.
10 Pre Earth Hour To Do List
- Decide on an Earth Hour activity, and who you want to involve. You might consider extending an invitation to another family to join you for Earth Hour.
- Find the fuse box so you will be ready to shut off everything for one hour. Verify your flashlight batteries, candles and matches are all accessible.
- Send this article to your local paper and ask them to print it.
- Plan food so the refrigerator and freezers won’t have to be opened.
- Go to https://www.earthhour.org for your own Earth Hour Starter Kit.
- Visit http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/earth-hour to find Earth Hour Events near you.
- Start using #EarthHour in your social media posts.
- Take Before Pictures of your house, neighborhood, and town to show what they look like on a normal night.
- Have a camera ready to take pictures of the fun during #EarthHour.
- See if your town or schools are sponsoring any Earth Hour Activities.
10 Earth Hour Ideas
- Hold an Earth Hour Neighborhood Night Crawl. Set up a schedule of stops where snacks/beverages will be served, and games can be played.
- Try lawn bowling. Make the pins from water bottles filled with water and a glow stick inside. You can bowl them down with basketballs or any lighter ball.
- Play Old School Games (Simon Says. Red Light; Green Light. Hide and Seek. Capture the Flag. Marco Polo. Hand-Clapping Games. Musical Chairs. Telephone. Duck, Duck, Goose. Freeze Dance. Etc.) in areas that have been cleared of trippable obstacles.
- Go to a dark area like a pasture or golf course, and identify constellations in the nighttime sky. (Have a back up plan in case it’s cloudy.)
- Do Yoga by candlelight.
- Roast marshmallows and hotdogs over a campfire. Make a list of songs for a sing-along.
- Hold an acoustic jam session with musically inclined neighbors.
- If you are a city dweller, go for a walk and observe who shuts off their lights. In the past, the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building were one of hundreds of icons that shut off their lights to honor Earth Hour.
- Have your children read to you without telling you the title. Your job is to guess which book they’re reading.
- Host a Dark Arts gathering. Set up easels and paints/chalk/charcoal for everybody. Create works of art which will be revealed when the lights come back on.
10 Earth Hour Follow-Ups
- Take an online quiz to see what kind of carbon footprint your lifestyle creates. http://www.earthday.org/take-action/footprint-calculator/
- Look up your electric bill from the day before Earth Hour, and the day after Earth Hour, to see if shutting it all off for an hour makes a difference.
- Calculate the amount of electricity that you saved during Earth Hour.
- Multiply the amount of electricity saved by 12 to envision what holding your own monthly Earth Hour would save over the course of a year.
- Multiply the amount of electricity saved by 52 to envision what shutting off your electricity for an hour each week would save over the course of a year.
- Take After Pictures of your house, neighborhood, and town to show what they look like during Earth Hour.
- Post your Before/After pictures on Social Media #EarthHour.
- Make a scrapbook of your Earth Hour activities that your kids can share at school, or scouts.
- Use the Earth Hour activities to generate excitement for Earth Day in April.
- Start planning what you want to do for Earth Hour next year.
These lists provide only a smidgen of possibilities. If you have any other Earth Hour activities to share, please do. We’d love to hear about your 2017 Earth Day plans, too, or what your community is planning. Welcome to the Dark Side.
