Hold onto Your Butts

It’s one of the famous lines from Spielberg’s 93 classic Jurassic Park. Technology, the driving force that brought the park into existence by means of various different sciences, has malfunctioned and shut down. As Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) smokes his cigarette to the filter and shuts the system down I find myself wondering what would happen if technology shut down here, not a remote island in the pacific but throughout the entire United States.

Programs like this exist. March 31 hosts Earth Hour. The goal is to have everyone across the country, across the world, turn off their lights for one hour. So far the program, which started in San Francisco, has been a success. The problem is, it’s only one hour.

There are tons of things a willing individual can do to save energy, so why wait an entire year for one hour? Plug your multiple appliances into a power strip and turn the whole thing off when you’re not using it. Turn off lights you aren’t using. Use compact fluorescents. Wash your clothes in cold water instead of hot- it reduces energy costs and washing your clothes in cold water helps them to stay vibrant and last longer. Do these things every day, then go even further and pull a Jurassic Park and totally unplug. No TV, no phone, no internet. Yep, sit in the dark. See if you can do it for one hour.