Our (wacky) guide to Earth Hour 2014
Earth Hour is coming up next Saturday, 29 March, and millions of homes and buildings across the globe will go dark for 60 full minutes. Here’s hoping! Keen to do more than just turn off your lights for one hour? Here are a few kick-a** ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
1. Go on a tech detox.
So you finally hit a thousand friends on Facebook, and just tweeted an Oscar-type selfie to see if you could crash Twitter like Ellen DeGeneres. To get rid of his social media obsession, graduate student Jake Reilly decided to spend 3 whole months without all his electronic gadgets – and he lived to tell the tale. Try this out someday (but come back to read us when you return)!
2. Live without money.
What happens when you decide you don’t need a single cent to survive? One young Irishman, Mark Boyle, rejected the trappings of consumerist society and started living off the grid after realising that environmental degradation and other global issues were largely due to a misplaced desire for wealth. Plus, he lived in a caravan home with – you got it – zero electricity.
3. Wear a sweater all day, everyday.
The sweater might just be the best energy-saving garment yet. WWF Canada named 6 February “National Sweater Day” to encourage folks to put on cute sweaters and turn down the thermostat by 2 degrees Celsius. In sunny Singas, a horde of sweater-clad moviegoers singing “What A Wonderful World” might just make our freezing cold movie theatres turn the temperature up a notch.
4. Imagine the end of the world is near.
Can’t begin to imagine a world without electrical power? Watch Revolution, a hit US television drama series on how communities survive after a mysterious global blackout in a post-apocalyptic world. Start end-time preparations early by reading Ziggy’s inspiring account: he built a cob house and decided to live without privileges like video games and computers. Top benefit? Not paying through the nose for electricity usage, that’s what.
5. Dance all night.
We don’t need a good reason to party, but why not party for a good cause? One club in Rotterdam, Netherlands had the honour of being named the world’s first sustainable club because of its energy-generating dance floor. Although the club closed its doors in 2010, we think this idea still has loads of potential to harness. You’ll get a chance to show off nifty footwork and generate energy too at Singapore’s sustainable dance floor.
6. Discover a way to harness energy from sugar.
Always dreamed of winning the Nobel Prize? If you unearth a sustainable way to harness energy from sugar, you’ll definitely be in the running for it. Researchers are developing a way to convert sugar into hydrogen, which can be captured and pumped through a fuel cell to power up vehicles. Sounds like a pretty lofty goal to us! Creating sugar-based batteries for laptops and mobile phones might be more achievable in the short term.
7. Build your own houseboat.
Living within the confines of four concrete walls can be stifling at times. Well, maybe it’s time to build your own houseboat out on the open waters. All you need? Lots and lots of plywood. This sustainable houseboat model is a low-tech, non-powered barge that can take up to four people, and will cost you less than USD 10 grand (about SGD$12,000). In Singapore, however, you’ll probably need to pay to anchor it in a yacht club, so we suggest this could be your retirement plan instead.
8. Go all out for Earth Hour.
If these 7 wacky energy-saving ideas are a little too ‘out there’ for you, pledge for one (or all) of these:
- Turn air-conditioning up by 1 degree;
- Switch to LED lighting;
- Use fewer plastic bags; and
- Take shorter showers.
Turn up at The Float @ Marina Bay from 5pm onwards on Saturday, 29 March and catch Earth Hour’s first Superhero Ambassador, Spider-Man (aka the very cute Andrew Garfield), who will help power down our iconic bayside buildings. It’s one brilliant sight you can’t miss out on!
>> The deets:
Earth Hour 2014, The Float @ Marina Bay, 29 March. From 5pm onwards. Admission is free and on a first-come-first-served basis. Visit WWF Singapore Facebook for more information.
Images: WWF Singapore Facebook, WWF Canada Facebook, Earth Hour Australia Facebook, Treehugger