16 Electricity-Free and Fun Earth Hour Activities

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global climate change initiative that aims to create awareness of people taking action and moving towards a sustainable future by turning the lights off.

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change that year. Today, there are over 162 countries and territories participating worldwide.

Join the movement this year to halt the damage on our environment by turning off your electricity on March 28th, from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM local time.

Effects of Earth Hour

About 39% of America’s total energy is used to generate electricity, meaning, electricity consumption is a prevalent portion of a consumer's environmental footprint. Earth Hour is a tool to spread awareness of this damage to the environment. Even a mere hour without the use of electricity has a direct effect on the environmental impact.

After Earth Hour 2013, external lighting on several major city landmarks in Dubai was turned off and street lighting in certain areas was dimmed by 50%. The Electricity and Water Authority reported savings of 100 megawatt-hours of electricity. This represented a 2.4% reduction in demand compared to before the hour began. Now, multiply these results to a global scale.

Though these are important results, the purpose of Earth Hour isn’t primarily about conserving electricity in that hour, it’s a symbolic action with a long-term goal in mind; for people to continue to practice sustainable habits moving forward. Earth Hour acts as a reminder and celebration that we all have the power to come together and re-examine, re-focus, and re-engage the environmental topics that truly matter. Increasing awareness of environmental issues acts as a catalyst for future sustainable action.

Have Some Fun With Earth Hour

Participating in Earth Hour is simple to do and can be celebrated with friends and family. Whether it’s at home, at your favorite hangout, or even in the office, there are plenty of fun ways to participate!

1. Play games - sit around the living room and play a boards game, tell ghost stories, play a game of truth or dare, or play charades with friends and family. Get cozy and light some candles! 

2. Cook a raw dinner - Who says you need an oven or stove to make a delicious meal? Try out these raw recipes you can make without any electricity; Ahi Tuna Salad with Miso-Wasabi Dressing, Pistachio-Pear Cucumber Salad, Thai Peanut Zucchini Noodles.

3. Hula hoop party in the street - bring out the hula hoops and get active! This Earth Hour go outside: jump, dance, and hula hoop your way through the hour.

4. Have a block party - make it a community event and invite your friends and neighbors over to partake in the movement.

5. Dance in the moonlight - a wonderful way to show your love for the environment is to dance under the moonlight. It will be a first quarter moon on the 28th of March, meaning a half-moon, so plenty of illumination to show off your moves!

6. Succulent terrarium - make a craft during Earth Hour. We recommend creating something new out of something old...take an old coffee pot you rarely use, or that bowl that’s been sitting in your cabinet untouched, and decorate it with beautiful succulents to add some green to your home.

 

7. Build a fort - Earth Hour is an opportunity to use our hands, build something, get creative, and step away from electronics. Remember how fun it was to gather chairs, sheets, and pillows and build a fort?

8. Star gazing - spend Earth Hour looking up at the stars and remind yourself how important our Earth is.

9. Go to the park - look up your local park hours and play in the park. Slide down the slides or swing on the monkey bars. Depending on cloud cover, there should be enough natural light to see.

10. Read a book - finally finish that book you have been wanting to read for ages but haven’t found the time to.

11. Go camping - celebrate the environment in the environment! Go to your favorite campsite for the night or pitch a tent in your backyard.

12. Make puppets - create puppets and put on a puppet show for friends and family!

13. Paint or water color - get creative and use your artistic skills to paint a portrait of the Earth, your favorite beach, or a butterfly using water colors to add fun details!

14. Make world flags out of construction paper - celebrate the oneness in the global community that participates in Earth Hour by creating flags of your different countries using construction paper.

 

15. Play an instrument - whether you're playing the recorder or xylophone with your kids or guitar and bongo drums with friends, jam out with an instrument and make some groovy music!

16. Scavenger hunts - plan out an awesome scavenger hunt before Earth Hour, and once the lights go off, let the games begin!

How to Participate 

Join the global community in showing your commitment to this planet by turning off non-essential electricity from 8:30 PM until 9:30 PM (local time) on Saturday March 28th. During Earth Hour, turn off your lights, TV and computer.  Unplug any electronics not in use like coffee machines, lamps, chargers, and hair dryers. Get together with other families and friends and encourage them to participate. Go to EarthHour.org and sign up to participate in this year’s Earth Hour. Spread awareness of the movement now and get your friends and family to partake by tweeting #EarthDay or sharing on Facebook.


Beyond the Hour

Earth Hour is a symbolic action showing that nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. Take your passion for the planet beyond the hour by being aware of the effects we have on our environment in our daily lives. Together let’s turn the inspiration of one hour into the actions of every hour. Reduce your carbon footprint by leading a sustainable lifestyle. Incorporate eco-friendly habits awareness into your everyday lifestyle. Turn off the lights when you leave a room, turn off the water faucet while brushing your teeth, take shorter showers, ride your bike, eat a meatless meal once a week. By participating in Earth Hour, you are joining millions of not only individuals but large businesses across all seven continents for a truly powerful and symbolic demonstration. 

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Are you ready to act?

Sources 
https://www.earthhour.org//official-videos  
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/world/earth-hour
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/index.html
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/03/earth-hour-benefit-sustainability/
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/03/jersey_city_joins_global_commu.html

11 Ways to Celebrate World Ocean's Day

There are 48 days between Earth Day and World Ocean's Day.

48 days to learn about the land we live on and the water that surrounds us.

48 days to teach ourselves something new and make an effort to change some our of actions, because how we behave and how our behaviors affect every part of the world. From the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, to how we commute, how we watch TV and prepare meals, how long we let the water run before turning it off to conserve. Every action matters.

Earth Day and World Ocean's day inspires us every year, more than just the days marked by the calendar. We love this season where the connection to conservation buzzes about in the news, online, and in our communities. Hope and action is in the air.

The first step towards action is awareness. If we do not know a problem exists, we cannot fix it. If we are unaware of the vast, beautiful, important world of the ocean, we do not care to protect it.

The ocean provides most of the air we breathe, and is a major source of food and medicine for the global population. In 2008, the UN General Assembly designated June 8 as World Oceans Day. This designation encourages awareness of the challenges facing the global community revolving oceans. We cannot afford for ocean to become a barren wasteland.

image via Earth Times

Get involved. Here are 11 ways you can celebrate World Ocean's Day:

1. Learn more about the day and the importance of the ocean. All action starts with awareness.
2. Take shorter showers. Did you know a 5 minute American shower uses more water than someone in the developing world uses all day! Challenge yourself to shave off several seconds of your showers by first timing several of your showers. Set goals to shower in less and less time, soon you'll be shaving a minute, or 2 or 3 in each shower! 
3. Reduce, reuse and recycle because our trash ends up in the ocean!
4. Green your life by eliminating plastic packaging from your purchases and switch to reusable water bottles, grocery bags and even sandwich bags!
5. Sign up for a beach clean up.
6. Check out a thrift store before buying new.
7. Turn the water off while brushing your teeth.
8. Eat less meat. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide... far more than transportation. Switching from a meat-centered weekly menu to a diet rich in vegetables and grains could save 2,500 liters of water a day! (source)
9. Collect runoff water in your home and garden and reuse. Rain water is perfect for watering plants and water from the shower before the heat turns up is great for making tea or coffee!
10. Eat only sustainably farmed or caught seafood.
11. Tell someone you know about World Ocean's Day and how we can all get involved to protect our oceans and our world.

What do you pledge to do this year?

The Earth is on Our Mind

Spring has sprung (okay it's been springing in San Diego for quite some time). The sun is out, the flowers blooming and we feel both happy and blessed to be living on such a lovely planet. We're sure you have these moments where you just have to breathe it all in because they are that sweet. These grateful moments, however, have us thinking about delicate nature of our planet.

With Earth Day coming up, (Earth Day is Tuesday April 22, 2014 in case you haven't yet heard) we have decided jump all into the spirit and festivities of spring -- enjoying the outdoors, participating in the community, and doing our part to protect the planet for humans and animals together, forever!

Our team here at Little Critterz™ is challenging you to participate as well!

Love The Earth

We believe the kick off to Earth Day is Earth Hour.  Earth Hour takes place almost a month before Earth Day, and it is the first event in which asks people to take part in the direction of our planet's resources and ecosystems. Heck, some may say St. Patrick's Day could be the kick off for this time of green -- cue green drinks and leprechauns dancing!

Olympic National Park's St. Patrick's Day post -- if that doesn't represent Earth Day we don't know what does!

I mean -- look at this forest! Isn't this worth saving?!

So we want to kick off the month before Earth Day with fun-filled, educational, and interactive topics that will make all of our lives richer knowing we are making a difference for all of the plants, animals and humans on this planet.

We hope to encourage you through topics like the best green products you should have, green gardening tips, and a 'Week of Green' - so stay tuned! Plus all of the information you'll need to participate in Earth Hour next Saturday, March 29 2014.

If you're not already following our blog, do so with BlogLovin' or Follow us on Facebook. You'll be the first to know when we release these posts!

Be Green All Year Long

We know it's not enough to protect the Earth by acting one day a year (hence our month of action for starters), but even more than that, engaging in sustainable behavior should be at the forefront of thought all year long! 

We are proud to support ecologically sound practices that encourage sustainability. We believe that every business and household can contribute to the slowing down of global warming. At Little Critterz™ we engage in green business practices by: 

• Providing educational information about the fragility of the earth’s ecosystems and the habitats of endangered wildlife
• Using recycled paper whenever possible to prevent useless destruction of our forests
• Minimizing the use of paper by maintaining digital files
• Recycle all plastics, cans and paper
• Shutting off lights when not in use
• Reducing excessive packaging to save trees
• Reuse all packaging materials received

We really hope you'll join along, learn about our planet and perhaps even get outside in participate in your community to make this world a better place!

Cheers and happy Friday to you all!

-the Little Critterz team

Sea Turtle Protection Society Saves 80 Turtle Babies!

Something very exciting just happened in Indialantic, Florida in cooperation with the Sea Turtle Preservation Society.

A call came into the pager of one of the volunteers, she was told baby sea turtles were popping out of the nest. The volunteer headed to the scene, with a bucket in tow hoping to save as many of the babies as possible. They succeeded in saving 80 sea turtle babies. During the day the sand is so hot it will fry the babies if they are not picked up right away. They were released that night as during the day it's too hot and too dangerous due to predators.

It takes 1,000 eggs to have one mature sea turtle. So the stranding team works very hard to save as many turtles on the beaches. The Sea Turtle Protection Society periodically gets these kinds of calls. Earlier last week, 5 babies were rescued but we're deceased before they reached the facility. Two weeks prior, 23 babies were rescued then released into the water.

The STPS's mission is simple "to help sea turtles survive". The volunteers are dedicated to sea turtle educating the public about protecting sea turtles, research and rescuing sick and injured sea turtles that arrive on their beaches. They often take advantage of educate the public in the vicinity as they release babies into the water.

The Sea Turtle Protection Society is happy to announce that Brevard Zoo will be opening a rehab center that will save turtles a long trip to another facility and this will save more lives.

Sea turtles are an endangered species.

photos taken by Debbie Livingston

Orangutan Adoption Follow Up

Hi all! We wanted to update you about which adorable orangutan we decided to adopt! You weighed in and we listened, we chose Gunung because of that great smile and his struggle. We are so happy to be able to provide food, care, and support in his journey to rehabilitation and reintroduction into the wild.

Thanks for being apart of this experience with us. We look forward to sponsoring more amazing people, animals and organizations. If you have suggestions, write to us in the comments below.

Check back as we add more organizations to our 'Who We Support' page so you can learn more about these courageous and passionate people helping animals.

We love the world, and know you do too. Let's make a difference together.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Our World Without Water

As you've probably seen us post about on our Facebook and Twitter pages, we've been shocked, nervous and curious about food production and waste as of late. We know that climate change is occurring and population is growing. So we wonder, what factors are contributing to the impending food crises? After all, there is estimated to be 9 million people in the world by 2050, and poverty and starvation is already a huge problem.

Water is the Worlds Most Precious Commodity

In Developed Nations, 95% of water that enters the home goes down the drain.

We know long showers, and letting the water run while brushing your teeth and washing your face wastes water after all 27% of water usage is from showering. But did you know that receiving one newspaper every day uses 66,000 gallons of water each year? Holy cow!

70% of water usage is for irrigation. But over half of the water used for irrigation is lost to leaks!

Trends

Increased population
Decreasing productivity due to climate change
Changing consumption

What People Are Eating Is Changing

In 2010, the world consumed 235 million tons of meat. By 2020, it is expected the world will consume an additional 60 million tons.

Producing 1kg of animal protein requires 100 times more water than 1kg of grain protein.

Let's Talk About Waste

24% of calories produced are not consumed. That's 198 million hectares, or the size of Mexico. Think about all of the energy and water that goes into producing this food, only to be thrown away!

In monetary terms, the average US American family wastes $1600 in food every year.

A UK report suggests that food waste if given to pigs instead of incarcerated could provide 800,000 tons of pork per year.

Anyone Else Nervous Yet?

So what can we do?

Grocery shop more often, but buy less. Buy what you need for the next day or two. I think we in the US feel so pressed for time that we make excuses about not having time to run to the store for an item we need. But wouldn't we rather make the time to go more often instead of over buying, over spending, and wasting what we don't really need just because we want to be "safe not sorry"?

Drive less. One car uses 40,000 gallons of water in gasoline. Walk or ride your bike to the grocery store. Making lifestyle choices to be more active everyday will cut down on gym time, leaving more time to be conscious about buying habits and the environment. Can we say win, win!

What are you doing to save water or prevent food waste? Comment below and let us know!

Extreme Birding

Today, April 25 is designated as the day the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will attempt to break the record for the most birds found in a single day. If you love birds as much as we do, you know that migrating patterns depend on weather pattern and temperature. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology will track birds as they migrate over Texas, in hopes of recording more species in any one day. The goal, to track over 265 species! If your kids have grown and miss the opportunities to raise funds for a good cause, make your pledge here! And follow on Facebook along throughout the day to keep updated with the finds!

The non-profit organization's mission is to interpret and conserve the environment focusing on five key areas: research, education, citizen science, technology and conservation.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a world leader in the study, appreciation and conservation of birds, and is apart of Cornell University.

Earth Hour 2013

Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia. People congregated on the harbor while homes and businesses turned off all of their lights. The city was dark, people were united and inspired.

Since then, Earth Hour has become the largest voluntary action for the environment, spanning 7000 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories on all 7 continents. On Saturday March 23, from 8:30-9:30 PM, you are encouraged to turn off your lights to conserve energy, and be part of a global effort for good.












Earth Hour was created to unite and empower people regardless of where in the world they live. It was created back in 2006 when sustainability was merely a blimp in our vocabulary radar, and definitely not affecting our every day lives. But as the world progressed towards deforestation, overpopulation, and exploitation of resources, we find ourselves in the middle of oil crises, superstorms, floods and the like.












Another goal of Earth Hour is to challenge people to change the world. Pledge what they can do to help save the planet we live on. Beyond the Hour and the 'I Will if You Will' campaign were launched in 2011 to continue the people's efforts throughout the year. The Girl Scouts of America changed over 130,000 light bulbs in community centers and homes in the US (equivalent to planting 7,000 acres of woodland every year!), in Russia after using Earth Hour efforts to get over 100,000 signatures, marine legislation was passed in Parliament. In France, legislation was passed that businesses turn lights off after 1 AM, saving both business money and emissions effecting the environment. But the ultimate goal of Earth Hour is to create a catalyst for sustainability efforts, and that 100% of power will be generated by renewable resources.

View the official Earth Hour video.

To find or create a local event, go here. Visit beyondthehour.org to see how you can make a difference all year or click here to make a pledge of what you would do to save the Earth.