It was 8:29 in the evening and lights in our house was flickering off one after the other; it was fully dark as our clock struck 8:30 PM. A candle was set up on a table and lit, the fourth Earth Hour had begun.

The first Earth Hour happened on Sydney in 2007, initiated by the World Wide Fund and The Sydney Morning Herald, it has now become a global phenomenon as cities around the world switch their lights off for an hour to raise awareness for the need to fight global warming.

There are critics scowling over the whole thing, saying the power savings from this event is actually almost negligible, but it’s really the idea and awareness of what’s happening to our environment more than the power savings that matter.

Sadly, this awareness is still lacking amongst the common folks as almost no other house along our street turned off their lights for the event. This is just sad, I’m not sure if they just didn’t know about Earth Hour or they simply don’t care.

Inside our home, instead of the usual blaring television, conversations were started over candlelight.

I proceeded over our courtyard, set up a candle, laid down our hammock, and contemplated the stars above. This is actually very nice and it really wouldn’t be bad to have an Earth Hour every day; sixty minutes of peace and quiet, a respite from the sounds of telenovelas, with candles, the stars and the moon as our light. Not only would it impact our energy consumption but I reckon would also improve family relations around the world as people actually start to talk to each other without televisions getting in the way.

If you really think about it, Earth Hour is really not for the present generation but for those that would come after us. Let’s hand them a better Earth than what we have now.