Switch off Your Lights for Earth Hour

Tonight at 8:30 p.m., residents in Glen Burnie and around the world are being asked switch off the lights in their houses for an hour as part of an international movement called Earth Hour.

During Earth Hour people around the globe turn off the lights in solidarity with the planet.

A 60-watt lightbulb left on for 24 hours uses 1.44 kilowatt-hours. At 7 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, that bulb costs roughly cents. A compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) uses roughly a quarter of that. This may not seem like a lot of money or electricity, but with around 2 billion light bulbs sold each year, that starts to add up. 

There already is a lengthy list of homes and businesses, including the Harbor Bank of Maryland in Baltimore, committing to Earth Hour in the U.S. alone.

With so many people involved, this one-hour period is expected to save the planet some energy, but is a primarily symbolic gesture. Earth Hour began in 2007, when 2.2 million Australians switched their lights off to take a stand against climate change. Since then, it has spread all over the world. 

This is a voluntary effort—completely separate from Earth Day on April 22, so people who don't want to participate won't lose their power. Participants also don't have to switch off all power in their homes, so you don't have to unplug your fridge and you could watch a movie.

When the hour begins at 8:30 p.m.—in whatever time zone you happen to be in—do you plan to flick off the switch?

Brookline Patch Editor Grahame Turner contributed to this article.