Lights Out!

Singapore has been trying to get people to save the earth by participating in Earth Hour, organising contests whereby the contestants stay in a room for a day to compete who uses the least amount of electricity and not forgetting the usual way, whereby they place posters everywhere and advice its citizens on how to conserve electricity.

My question is: HAS IT WORKED?

I guess the best answer would be... MAYBE.

Young kids are definately being influenced by the various government campaigns - like all other campaigns that are being held by them. But how about the older generation? Personally, I think that the whole energy saving thing is missing out on one key area. For example, I have a couple of neighbours that leave their outdoor lights on throughout the night. (And yes, I know this cos its irritating me cos I can't sleep properly due to light shining into my eyes---- eh... it's important! there have been studies that people grow taller/ sleep better if they sleep in total darkness. Not to forget, if I can't fall asleep with my curtains slightly open, I won't be able to get woken up by sunlight streaming into my room!)

Thus, instead of advocating that people sleep without air-con or to switch their lights off for an hour during one day a year, perhaps the idea should be to advocate to turn off lights that don't affect how they live their lives. For example, if they switch off their outdoor lights, it doesn't affect how they live their daily lives at all AND it'll cut down their electricity bill. Not to mention, assuming that the lights are switch on between 11pm to 6am (a total of around 7 hours) and its being carried out 365 days a year, that's a total of 2555 hours. That's around 1,200 houses switching off their lights for an hour a year.

I think that's DEFINATELY an area that should be explored! Mainly for the basic reason, that its easier to convince people to give up something if it doesn't affect their daily lifestyle.

It's like telling a non-smoker to give up smoking... SURE! where do I sign up?

On a seperate note, I've been trying to figure out WHY someone would leave their outdoor lights on.

There are two conclusions that I arrived at:


1)They're leaving their lights on for their pets outside (but I think they don't have one)

Judging from Garfield and Snoopy, Pets sleep with their eyes closed too. Thus, why would they want lights shining in their eyes too?


2) They think leaving their lights on is a good burglar prevention tool.

Somehow, I keep imagining that leaving the lights OFF actually would be a better prevention tool due to the fact that, there would be no residual lights filtering in from the outside.

The burglar could stub his toe in the dark.

The lights from the torchlight he is using might accidentally alert someone.

If the burglar had infra-red googles, etc... then... I have nothing else to say.

But in short, I think you probably get my drift.

In conclusion....

SWITCH OFF YOUR OUTDOOR LIGHT SO I CAN SLEEP AND GROW!