On March 27, 2010 at 8:30 pm, approximately one billion people came together to participate in Earth Hour, the world's largest awareness event.

The Global event shows that by joining forces each one of us can take a strong stance to protect the planet for ourselves and for future generations.  Earth Hour is a way to stand up against climate change to drive the enviroment movement forward with one simple action.  Most cities and towns around the globe participated in Earth Hour with major land marks like the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, the Lions Gate bridge in Vancouver, the entire strip in Las Vegas, the Eiffel Tower, CN Tower in Toronto, many huge buildings in Washington D.C. and large buildings all over the world; all turning off their Lights for 1 hour.

The city of Barrie, Ont. had a huge street concert downtown on the evening of March 27.
Here in Vernon, the city-sponsored Earth Hour event was a big success with exception to the fact that the venue was too small.  The candlelit event at the Bean Scene saw people standing inside and outside on a cold evening. The coffee house was not large enough and I'm sure turned away many people who wanted to find a seat inside.  Lots of support for the hour with almost no advertising.  If they had good promotion they probably could have filled the recreation centre.

_{Me? Methane? I beg your pardon!}

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia in 2007; which was only 3 years ago.  The question is, why has Earth Hour grown so fast in such a short period of time?  Earth Day which has been around for 40 years has not grown as fast.  Maybe the reason that Earth Hour is such a success is because it is so simple.  All you have to do to participate is to turn your lights off for 1 hour on a Saturday evening. I believe people do want to do something to support the cause of Global Warming and this is an easy way of lowering their carbon foot print.  For those people wanting to really make a difference to lowering their carbon emissions here is another easy but very powerful way to contribute.  Follow Paul McCartney's advice for lowering Green House Gases; it is called Meatless Mondays.  According to the U.N.'s International Panel on Climate Change, the very largest contributor to GHG is livestock.  It is reported that livestock causes 18% of the planets' GHG, even higher than transportation itself which makes up 11% of the planets GHG.  Experts have told us that livestock produce methane gas which is 24 times more potent than CO2 as a Green House Gas.  The famous musician of the Beatles suggests that everone give up eating meat for 1 day a week to lower their carbon foot print.  This is also good for peoples' health.  Walking instead of driving is another method of improving one's health and helping to lower GHG; a win-win for everyone.
Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 2010.