Earth Hour 2010: Is it Easy Being Green?

This past Saturday March 27th at 8:30PM the five year old and I joined millions of others in turning off the lights for an hour. With the wife being at work two years ago and this year she was a judge at a beauty pageant, it has become a father son tradition (last year it slipped up on me and I was aware of it only when the moment had passed).

I learned of Earth Hour 2008 when the Google site was completely black to bring awareness to the event. The then three year old and I had a blast. He had no objections whatsoever, and he thoroughly enjoyed playing with flashlights. This year we also played with flashlights, had wood in the fireplace, and played with his multiple lightsabers.

This time though at age five he had questions.

“Why are we turning off the lights?”
“Uhmm…to save the planet,” I said.

“OK buddy ole pal let’s leave the lights off and play with our flashlights”.
“Uhmm maybe tomorrow.” he said.

Eventually, with a little finagling and an occasional playing of the “Just obey Daddy” card, I did manage to keep his attention and we did have a great time playing Hungry Hungry Hippo in the dark. But my ultimate goal of course will be that as he gets older, and the novelty of playing with lightsabers and flashlights wears thin, that just knowing that he is participating in a massive movement in which his contribution along with many others collectively makes a world of difference in saving the planet and making it healthier for generations to come will be more than enough to help him focus on greener habits. We’ll see next year.