Small Beautiful World -- close the lights

A frozen gyre in the ice at Newfoundland,
 photo by Col Chris Hadfield

Over here, we say Turn the Lights On. Turn the Lights Off.

My friends in Europe say Open the Lights! Close the Lights.

We don't care how you say it, we just want to remind you that tomorrow, Sat. March 26, at 8.30 p.m. you can and should join the 1 billion people around the world who turn their lights off for EARTH HOUR.

Get a book, get a candle, and shut 'er down... Take a walk outside -- it's going to be a lovely night, complete with stars.

Remind your friends. Lots of folk say,"oh I just forgot" -- trust me, there's nothing that good on TV... so make a sign, stick it on the fridge. Remember.

If you've been living on the dark side of the moon, and haven't heard about Earth Hour, it started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries/territories participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

Why not go one better? Go beyond the hour. Make some serious changes in the way you use, and no doubt waste electricity. After all, it's a small blue planet, but it's all we've got. And honestly, is there anywhere you'd rather be? Take care of it...

Check out the fantastic photos of our planet that Col. Chris Hadfield is posting from his vantage point in command of the International Space Station    They highlight how magnificent, how diverse, and how very fragile this planet is, floating out there in space.  I wonder if Earth Hour will make it onto his photo stream -- I wonder if it will be possible to see, for even a brief span of time, the electric lights shut down.

Let's give it a go.