During the Earth Hour, I was happened to be at a supermarket. In support of the Earth Hour, the supermarket chain switched off most of the lights. The supermarket was still very bright.

So my take back from this Earth Hour is that, we had switched on too much light every day of the year. It was only slightly diner in the supermarket, and I observed that only 1/3 of the lights was switched on. In another words, the supermarket can potentially save 2/3 of the electricity on lights. Imagine the carbon reduction.

As such, I am still thinking, since so many years ago, what had Earth Hour actually achieved? Buildings, companies are still wasting electricity on non-essential lights, switching on too many lights every single day of the year.

The Earth Hour is over, the lights were switched on again, what had everyone learned from the 60 minutes? Is the statement really made? Or back to normal life?

For me, the only take back is, we do not really switch on so much light. Only if, through these 60 minutes, those participating organizations realized that they had switched on too much light in the past and reduce the amount of light from this point of time, then I believe that the statement had been made.

Just around 8.20pm, about 10 minutes before the Earth Hour observation, I was at Raffles Place.

When I walked past a bank building, I could feel icy cold wind blowing from the bank. The bank was not opened on Saturday. The entrance was opened because there were some contractors working there.

I wonder, do the bank need to set the air conditioning temperature to so low.
I wonder how much energy was consumed for cooling the building to such low winter temperature.
I wonder, how much carbon diode was produced to generate the require energy.

When I reached Singapore River, I saw a technician waiting at the switch board, looking at the time at his mobile phone. He told me, he was waiting for 8.30pm to switch off the non-essential light.

I had the opportunity to observe the difference. The first picture below was taken minutes before the light was switch off and the second picture was taken minutes after the light was switched off.

Singapore River just before Earth Hour 2010

Singapore River minutes just after the start of Earth Hour 2010

I am not surprised that, most would not notice the difference. Basically, the only the light at the edge of the pavement at the river bank was switch off.

I wonder, are these light needed in the first place.

As I walked further down, the really dark place was Esplanade Park, where the concert was held. I watched for a while before moving on to have dinner.

Walking along Esplanade Park during Earth Hour 2010

Esplanade Park during Earth Hour 2010

Earth Hour 2010 Performance at Esplanade Park

Earth Hour 2010 is over…. but what have we achieved? The non-essential light was switched on again for another 8759 hours till Earth Hour 2011. The air con temperature is still set as icy cold as before.

No commitment, no actual plan, no target set on how to save the Earth.

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