After a little cynicism, I did in fact join in Earth Hour. Over at Marita’s, we shut off all the lights for an hour and survived by the light of the TV, candles and a torch. In fact there seemed to be few lights on in the street, and it was hard to tell how many of the neighbours had joined in. Hopefully most of them.

The whole thing did get me thinking more about my energy consumption, and after some useful comments on my post about power, I’m going to ring up this week and switch to 100% Green Power.

On Friday I was at the launch of the first Wind-Powered Tram. That’s not to say that it has a big sail on the top. Nor does it really only use power generated from a wind turbine. They buy the equivalent of its power consumption from a wind installation. Which is good; it will act as a mobile billboard for Green Power, and should remind us that PT (even coal-powered) is a cleaner way to get around.

I got chatting to one of the guys from the power company, Pacific Hydro. He was saying that things are really looking up for renewable energy at the moment, and that the Howard years had not been easy for them. I guess I’m not too surprised, but it was interesting hearing it from someone at the coalface (if you’ll forgive the expression) of it.

Finally, if you want a laugh, check this press release from the Citizens Electoral Council: Earth Hour: Turn out your lights for World Wide Fascism (WWF)