A Letter to the City of London, Ontario, Canada

Dear City of London;
Earth Hour. To me, one of the most noblest of ideas and plans to slowly make a dent in the giant that is global warming. Living with my 82 year old, old-way-of-thinking German grandmother, I initially thought it would be near impossible to do anything other than unplug my laptop, but for the past week she has been asking me questions about global warming (all brought on by a pamphlet given to her on the melting of the ice caps).
82 years old and she joined me in counting down the minutes, seconds until the cookoo-clock hit and called out 8pm. We had both televisions unplugged, the DVD player unplugged, clocks and phones and the microwave unplugged. In the end, our house was pitch-black for all but one phone, one clock, the fridge upstairs and freezer in the basement. Pretty good, if you ask me. It was so silent, so calming. I decided to go for a walk.
And so I walked. I walked down Platts lane and around the Cherryhill apartment complex’s. All of the apartment complex’s, and then past Cherryhill mall. It’s the route my grandmother and I have been walking since first year (for me, she’s been walking it for years upon years now). I walked with a cheesy grin on my face, thinking that finally, the city was doing something concrete and substantial to combat global warming on a populace-based scale. I then noticed that only every other street lamp was on, which made me smile even more, thinking I was seeing some “non essential” lights being turned off.
But then…well, see, I’m not sure who’s in charge of lights in apartment parking lots, or in mall parking lots, or in bank parking lots, but the sight of these made my heart drop. Nothing was off, nothing at all. The lights around Cherryhill were all glowing happily as I walked past. Those in the mall parking lot were buzzing with pent up energy. The mall itself had every light on. I’m not sure who parks in front of a bank at 8 or 9 at night, but I do know that whoever does will have no need to worry about lighting, as the florescent-like lights were humming and glaring along with all the other. I then noticed, as I made my way up the driveway of my house, that all of the street lights were on. I suppose, when I had first seen them, it was still too bright out for them to have been turned on.

So, my question to you, city of London, is what, pray tell, was your idea of “non-essential” lights? Because I’m sure three-tiered florescent, buzzing parking lot lamps are damned essential when most businesses in the mall adjacent are closed for the night. Maybe we should try this again, guys. And this time, maybe we should follow Toronto’s lead and make everyone aware by way of more advertisement, more hype, more excitment. Maybe we should have used a giant switch, like in Toronto, to shut off the lights.
Turning off the lights in a few, select buildings is not enough. I watched the CBC news at 9 and what I saw of other Canadian and international cities put London to shame. I am not a London native, but I have been here long enough to feel pride or shame for the city and, believe me, I was not very proud this evening. The public, in my opinion, were neither fully informed nor aware of the event. I have a feeling that my small hometown may have accomplished more darkness.

Earth Hour indeed.