The Earth Hour

The Earth Hour                                    25/3/13

          Do you observe the Earth Hour falling in the last week of March every year?  Yes / No /…….n%.  Did you observe the Ear-th Hour this year?  Yes / No /…….n%.  Well, like many and many people, I hear it with my two ears and learn about it on the radio and through newspaper sources.  I have enough information what it is all about.  But I did not switch off all the power sockets and lights at home.  I only switched off the light in the sitting room and the other light outside the kitchen. 

          We switch on a few lights at home every day at dusk.  There are One switch to three eco-friendly bulbs in the sitting room; one bulb outside the sitting room;  one eco-friendly bulb in the kitchen and one outside the kitchen.  When my son is around, there will be an additional light on in his room.  Before we go to bed, we will switch on 3 more lights outside the house.  Hence my household electricity consumption is around RM150-160 a month.  The electricity bill ran up from RM 40 -50 in early years about 9 years ago and then RM70-80.  The increase is due to the fact that we have an additional fridge, 4 induction cookers to do all the cooking and boiling and two air-conditioners installed about a year ago.  My son uses the air-conditioner almost every day.  The other air-conditioner fixed in the master room is only used when the weather is unbearably hot.

          I never like to sleep in the air-conditioned room.  I prefer to sleep on the wooden bed in the well-ventilated room.  Luckily, I live in the suburb area where the air is fine almost all the time.  Hence I don’t even use a fan no matter how hot it is as I almost always take a bath before I go to bed.  I let myself sweat / not in a natural way.  Even during the  daytime, I don’t use an electricity fan no matter as I stay downstairs all the time.  I am really not used to the blowing of wind from the fan.  I thank the Lord of this Universe for all the blessings for being able to live in a place clean and cool enough.

          What a big deal to tell the whole world about your lifestyles.  What I want to bring out is about our forgotten past lifestyles that our forefather/ parents lived.  We modern people have the lifestyles  in contrary to those of them.  What a pity that I see.  I don’t know how many % of the people in the urban areas don’t n% live in air-conditioned environment.  I have a lady relative, alike to a superwoman to me as she is so successful.  Thus she stays in air-conditioned rooms up to at least 90% of her daily life.  Hence she needs a device (I have no idea what it is.) to make herself ‘sweat’.  Imagine what a life she leads. 

          Sweating is a way to de-toxify yourself based on my best knowledge.  I gained this information based on my listening to [aifm radio station] and newspaper sources.  And I am convinced.  I sweat a lot whenever I move about doing or not doing housework / gardening.   

          Industrialisation leads to modernisation.  And modernisation brings about urbanisation.  And urbanisation causes disorientation from nature.  Thus it is a torture to endure if you live in urban areas and cultures.  Nowadays I see that it is just so common for people to install air-conditioners , two – three or even more in every house.    

         I lived in a congested urban areas with all the terraced houses around for 9 and a half years.  I still insisted to live without an electricity fan and air-conditioner in the bedroom.  I made it.  I think it is your thought and your belief that count.  It is just as what a professional motivator said it is your thought/belief that create your attitude.  It is your attitude that lead you to form a habit.  It is the repeated habit that affects your life/ the consequence.  Therefore you are what  you think.  (Voltaire said:  I think therefore I am.)

          It is said in Chinese “If your heart remains calm, you feel cool. [心静自然凉]”。Well…….., I think it is true to a great extent.  But the global warming has an impact of the phrase/ saying.  I find it harder to drive around without an air-conditioner as I can’t open the car windows as the air has become more polluted in every passing day.  I remember my son and I always had an argument as far as to use / not air-conditioner when I was driving him around when he was small. 

          Actually, I should have switched off the power sockets of my 2 refrigerators and the switch to access the internet and the one to turn on the radio and my desktop.  I believe I will try my best to switch off whatever power sockets that hour from next year onwards as long as I am alive.  It is a good break for such electrical appliances  like the fridge and the sockets that power the computer and radio.   Of course I will still switch on the light/s which I need to at that hour to do washing up / housework unless…………

                   This Ear-th Hour, I think, is really significant as It reminds all with the ears / not

          to hear / not to observe It  as a clear reminder to all dear / not to conserve and

          preserve our Mother Earth at all cost. 

                   Individually my husband and I almost always switch off the power socket /

          switch after use.  My son is learning to form the habit but he has to be reminded to  

every now and then.  If every family tunes up to preserving and conserving our Mother Earth , what a big preservation and conservation work we collectively can achieve/ accomplish/ attain.  How nice it is.

                   Well………….all in all,  it is only a half that I see we have done if our government

          still go on wasting and plundering way of development  like ever before.  I hope and pray and pray and hope our local councils, our Energy Berhad, our government linked companies, our

          government agents…………. are more environmentally-friendly as far as electricity is

concerned.  They should avoid creating ‘winter’ in the offices / premises where they work.  They should switch off the street lamps punctually and check around if there are any lamps in the street still lighting on in the broad daylight.  It is also important to switch off the lights where they are not required.

          For the Sibu Central Market, I always feel so upset whenever I see so many fluorescent lights are on at the places where the sunlight is so bright and shiny.  So many fluorescent lamps are on along the driveways as well as at places at the edge in between the beams.  I just can’t understand why there are so many fluorescent lamps lining and lighting there during the daytime when the sunlight is many times brighter.  I have told the authority concerned but they took little heed to my words.  I always think whenever I go there every week what an amount of electricity bill is saved if SMC just switches off the lamps that are not required during the daytime.  But who cares? 

                   It is goodlah that the Earth Hour remind you and me and them to check if we

          waste in any way.  This Earth Hour hence reminds me to tell SMC again about energy

         saving to do other time, too though we people bill the expenses.