Author: Trystan L. Bass

What single event will unite 3,500 cities, towns, and
municipalities in 125 countries and regions — along with at least 80
million Americans? What worldwide action is hugely symbolic yet so simple, even
a child can participate?

It’s Earth Hour, and it happens for the fourth time on
Saturday, March 27, 2010, starting at 8:30 p.m. local time. Just turn off the
lights, and you’re in.

Landmarks like the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Empire
State Building
in New York, St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, the Eiffel
Tower in Paris,
Sydney’s Opera House, and the Acropolis and
Parthenon in Athens
will go dark for one hour.

New monuments turning off the lights this time include Mount
Rushmore in South Dakota, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Brandenburg Gate
in Berlin, Toronto’s
CN Tower, the Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest building) in Dubai,
and the Bosphorus Bridge that links Asia to Europe in Turkey

Countries like the Czech
Republic, Madagascar,
Nepal, Panama, Saudi, Arabia,
Lithuania, and the Cook Islands will participate in the light’s out
demonstration for their first time in 2010. They’re joining Earth Hour
originator Australia and
past participants such as Brazil,
Hong Kong, Egypt,
Great Britain, Switzerland, and Japan.

London Bridge as it is lit every night.

How London Bridge will look during Earth Hour. (Photos: World Wildlife Fund)

In the U.S.,
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is
turning off his lights, and so is the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash. Downtown
Atlanta, Chicago,
and Nashville
will dim. The usually glittering Las Vegas Strip will flick off the switch of
the iconic “Welcome to Las Vegas”
sign along with the marquees for dozens of major hotels and the Fremont Street
Experience.

The lights will go out at governors’ residences and/or state capitol buildings in 33 states including Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and New York.  

Seattle’s Space Needle, the Church of Latter-Day Saints Temple in
Salt Lake City, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate
Bridge are just a few of the American monuments that will turn off all unnecessary
lights.

Las Vegas’ Flamingo Hotel usually has a well-lit marquee featuring the current show.

But during Earth Hour, the Flamingo will go dark. (Photos: World Wildlife Fund)

Why?  The power bills
won’t go down dramatically with the lights dimmed for just one hour. (And don’t worry,
there won’t be a power surge
from people turning lights off and then back on all at once.)

The goal of the
World Wildlife Fund-sponsored event isn’t to save energy on this one day — it’s
to raise awareness of climate
change and energy conservation all year round.

Nashville’s riverfront glows on a typical night.

Nashville makes a stand on climate change during Earth Hour.
(Photos: World Wildlife Fund)

So use this hour in the dark to plan what you’re really
going to do to help the planet. There are lots of things that take less than
one hour but add up to a lot of conservation.

For example, you could start doing any of these things:

• Turn
  off lights when you leave a room for 15 minutes or longer.
• Drink tap
  water instead of bottled water.
• Put
  your computer in power-save
  mode.
• Turn
  off video game
  consoles when not in use.
• Seal
  air leaks, adjust your water heater, and control your thermostat to lower
  energy usage and waste.
• Go meatless
  on Mondays.
• Watch
  out for energy
  vampires around the house and unplug the biggies.
• Swap
  out all your light bulbs for CFLs.
• Stop catalogs
  and junk mail from piling up in your mailbox.
• Reduce
  the brightness
  of your TV set to the “home” mode.
• Use up
  leftovers, compost, and avoid wasting
  food.
• Find
  out how walkable
  your hometown is and try walking to your weekend errands.
• Fix a leaky
  faucet or toilet.
• Use
  the low-water and low-heat settings on your dishwasher,
  and don’t pre-rinse dishes.
• Hang
  your clothes to dry on a clothesline
  in spring and summer.
• Take public
  transit to work or school.
• Install
  dimmer
  switches on your lights and plug appliances into smart power switches.

Get more ideas for living green, saving energy,
saving water, conserving limited resources, and saving money at the same time.

Earth Hour is only 60 minutes. It’s a start, maybe a wake-up
call for some when they see landmarks and cities go dark. What we do the rest
of the day and the rest of the year is what counts in the long run.

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Want to keep that romantic red rose
around a little longer? Whether they’re from Valentine’s Day or another special
occasion, roses can last beyond their first bloom with a bit of extra care. You
can dry out the flowers and display them or use them in craft projects for
memories that live on.

You’ll need:

• Fresh
  roses
• Push-pins
• Rubber
  bands or string
• Aerosol
  hair spray

The key is to start before the heads of the roses begin to droop and
before the flowers have lost any petals. This ensures a strong stem, a firm and full flower, and the most vibrant color once dry.

If the flowers have been
in water, dry the stems, and remove leaves from the stems. Take two or three roses
and gently twist a rubber band or string around the bunch near the bottom of
the stems to hold them together.

Secure a push-pin into a shelf, wall, door frame, closet, or other
area to hang that is away from people and pets. You want to hang the roses
where they will get air circulation but not face a window (so they don’t
fade or become too brittle). Hook or tie the loose end of the rubber band /
string to the push-pin.

It will take about two weeks for the roses to completely
dry. Then you can lightly spray each flower with hair spray to keep them from
falling apart as quickly (though they will always be fragile).

Blooms will shrink and change color when they dry. Red roses
can turn very dark burgundy, almost black. White roses become a lovely
parchment color. Pink roses tend to become a deep blush or peach. Yellow roses
may turn a brown or orange shade. Purple roses can go blush or brown,
depending on how dark they started.

Long-stem dried roses look elegant in vases and
arrangements, or you can hot-glue dried blossoms onto wreaths and seasonal
decorations. Fill a glass bowl with a mix of dried roses for a romantic
centerpiece.

If you want to dry a fully opened blossom, try
using silica
gel. This product is available at craft stores and can be dangerous around
children and pets. Make sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. You’ll
also have to snip the roses sooner.

Have the petals already begun to fall? You can still
preserve the flower by pressing it or at least pressing a few petals. This site has easy instructions
for making a flower press out of cardboard, paper towels, and coffee
filters. You can use pressed roses and petals in scrapbooks and other art projects.

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