A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step

I don't normally get on a soap box about any topic but I have to get this off my chest.

This past Saturday held the first Earth Hour. Some people embraced the idea seeing it as a positive step towards change. Others, whom I will refer to as the 'cynics' were far less supportive. It was turning off lights for one hour on a Saturday evening, I mean , really, does it get any easier than that??

We sat around in candlelight with family and had a great conversation that may not have taken place with the lights on. I know we did not have any major impact on climate change by doing this but hopefully we showed our son that we were making an effort to make a change and that these small changes can make a difference. This is the world that he and his brother or sister are going to inherit after all and because of that I am more environmentally conscience than I have ever been. My husband and I try to do little things everyday that make a difference in our household and hopefully, the earth.

"What difference will it make" another cynic said to me....well I want to know what does doing nothing accomplish? The one hour turning your lights off was really just symbolic to help raise awareness and that, my friends, is what makes the difference. All these little changes will make a difference if people participated more and complained less. The cynic at CBC who referred to Earth hour as a bandwagon is an idiot and only needlessly adds to this negative attitude.

Now that Earth Hour is over, we can all become more pro-active in making a change. Turn off those lights, turn down the heat, leave your car at home when you can walk, reduce, re-use and recycle every day, demand less packaging and better waste management from manufacturers. These are all just 'little' things but if we all did these 'little' things it would have a huge impact on our environment and we would make a difference.

There...I have stepped off the soap box.