CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Unless you are directly receiving emails from the official organisation, then it might surprise you that Earth Hour took place at 8pm last night.
Earth Hour is an annual worldwide event held to encourage individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m – on a specific day towards the end of March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet.
It was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns across 187 countries and territories to raise awareness for energy consumption and effects on the environment.
However, with the current self-isolation taking place around the country in the face of the COVID-19 Pandemic – the idea of turning off every source of electricity in the house is not even getting a look in.
This wilful dismissiveness of the famous conservation effort was on full display at the Russo household in Betoota Heights last night – as the young family kept every screen and light on in an effort to preserve their sanity during these uncertain times.
Local mum, Belinda Russo, says even though she views herself as a run-of-the-mill climate change advocate – it’s pretty clear that Earth Hour is in no way a priority at this time.
“It’s pretty hard to do Earth Hour when you can’t have a kitchen full of friends drinking wine by candle light” she says.
“This isn’t the year for that, sorry planet”
However, as Belinda points out – her family’s inability to go 60 minutes without power isn’t something that’s going to keep her up.
“We’ve got the car parked in the driveway and will probably only fill her up a couple times over the next month”
Belinda’s husband Nic looks up briefly from the replay of the 2006 NRL grand final on their 60 inch home cinema screen to reiterate her point.
“I heard they saw dolphins in Venice for the first time in 100 years!” he says, recycling some fake news he saw on Facebook earlier.
“Look, a lot of the factories have closed and all those disgusting cruise ships are all sitting stationary at different ports around the world. I think we can keep Netflix blaring in good conscience”
“Anyway, who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I don’t care if you are with the media. Get the fuck out of our house. This is a blatant violation of social distancing”
