So disappointed!

We have not inherited this world from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children." Native Canadian passage 

When you "borrow" something, doesn't that imply that we are going to give it back at some point in the future? Well after what appeared to be an abysmal local participation rate in Earth Hour last Saturday I think we should more accurately admit that we are stealing, rather than borrowing, the earth from our kids.

I was shocked, and disappointed, to see so few homes, let alone businesses (that weren't even open at 8:30 pm on a Saturday) shrouded by darkness. We drove through several towns/cities on the way home from a family event (who did turn the lights off at the appointed time, even with a house full of guests) and I'd say we saw fewer than 20 homes (on the 45 minute drive) darkened (and who knows if even these homes were actively participating in the Earth Hour event or were just out for the evening - I know, I know, I am such as pessimist).

We drove up our Main Street hoping to find that our own little community was being more environmentally responsible than the rest of the GTA only to be not totally disappointed. A few of the shops were completely dark, as were two of the restaurants (candles flickering on the tables, porch and entry ways), a couple of shops and another restaurant were definitely darker than usual, and then there was Starbucks ... usually bright and  full of lights seemed even more so (envision a fir tree in the middle of the forest in the the dead of night lit up with a zillion Christmas tree lights) against the dimmed backdrop of the rest of the street. 

Sigh. 

Oh well, with all the tools available to help us save energy (from iPhone apps - yes there are many apps for that - to programmable and remote accessed thermostats) that so few of us take advantage of, I guess it was too much to expect people to manually turn lights off for an hour. Who knows what could have happened; someone could have sprained a finger flipping a switch or we could have actually made a difference.