Tapping into #YourPower: Earth Hour & Climate Hope

This year in honor of Earth Hour – March 28th, 8:30pm your time wherever in the world you are – we are teaming up with NRG Home Solar, NBA superstar Bill Walton, and our good friends at the Big Green Purse to make it easy for you to raise awareness about climate change, take action and create climate hope. Let us show you how to channel #yourpower and not only make a difference, but show others how to as well!

We know that for many of our Climate Mamas and Papas celebrating Earth Hour has become part of their family lore and traditions. Earth Hour ushers in Earth Month (April) and Earth Day (April 22nd), and gives us the opportunity to reflect on why we should work so hard to nurture our planet. We share and plan together what each of us individually and as a family can do to keep our planet healthy and sustainable as we use our power to raise attention to the climate crisis and work to build climate hope. Since it’s creation by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007 when Sydney Australia, famously “turned off it’s lights,” Earth Hour has grown to become a global movement with more than 7000 cities and towns in over 160 countries together turning off their lights to remind us that climate change is a global problem.

Earth Hour also reminds us that that the challenges of climate change present many incredible opportunities. So, grab your kids and come up with a plan that involves TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS at 8:30pm on Saturday, March 28th. Have a “picnic” by flashlight with the kids in your life, tell stories in the “dark,” watch the stars, walk on the beach, play a board game by the light of the moon…and discuss your “next steps” after the Hour. Let Earth Hour be the beginning of your family’s “spring into action” plan, to make our planet a safer and more sustainable place. Be inspired! Check back here later this week, and we will also be sharing a special video by NBA Bill Walton, on Earth Hour and #yourpower.

Here are a few ideas that you could include in your family plan:

• switch out your regular light bulbs for LEDs; begin in one room and make a plan to switch out all your light bulbs by an agreed on date.
• get an energy-saving power strip and plug in your computers and office equipment and “turn off” when you aren’t using them.
• get a solar-powered battery recharger for smart phones and tablets.
• Talk about climate change and climate solutions with your friends and your extended family – take back our power, climate change shouldn’t be a partisan or political issue; it is impacting us all and we need to work together to create solutions.
• write a letter, or better yet take a family trip to your local town hall or state house and let your elected officials know that moving to renewable energy now, at the state, national and local level is critically important to you. We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and harness the sun and wind for our energy and electric needs. We need the help of all our elected officials to do this.
• Look into installing solar on your home of business. My family did this last year and we love looking at our bills and seeing how much energy we are producing by the sun, and how much money we are saving!

Another easy, and powerful step you can take is to pledge on the NRG Home Solar Facebook page to learn more about solar energy. EVERYONE who does this will be entered in a sweepstakes to win one of 10 Earth Hour Party Packs, valued at $500. Best of all, if only 1000 people take the pledge, NRG Home Solar will donate $20,000 to Grid Alternatives, a non-profit that helps low-income communities install solar collectors to help homeowners reduce heating costs. How amazing is that! So tell your friends and family and let’s reach 1000 pledges today!

What makes Earth Hour so special is that it empowers you – as an individual, a family or as part of a community or organization – to share your commitment to the planet. This is particularly important this year as our world leaders will be gathering in Paris in late November 2015 to share action plans – with binding commitments – which detail how each country will lower it’s greenhouse gases to slow down climate change at the same time that we work together to adapt to the changes that we are already facing. Our friends at Climate Reality make this easy too. Learn more about the Road to Paris now.
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For those of us in the northeast, the never ending winter of 2015 is still hanging on. At the same time, we know that our California Climate Mamas and Papas are dealing with their 4th year of drought and our Washington State and Oregon families have seen their cherry blossoms bloom more than a month early. Our climate is changing quickly, yet nationally more than 100 Congressmen and Senators, as well as several potential presidential candidates still deny the reality of human caused climate change. At times this knowledge saps our strength and try’s to rob us of our super powers. Join us as we let Earth Hour renew our strength. Let’s use our powers to remind our local, state and national leaders that we and our children are watching them, and that we expect and demand that they lead and take action on climate change!

Yours,

Climate Mama

P.S. It’s “Do Something Wednesday” at ClimateMama, so take some time, and think about #YourPower…Pledge to make a difference today…We each can make a difference, and together we are unstoppable!

P.P.S This is a sponsored post for NRG Home Solar. As is the case with any sponsored posts we create, all opinions, positions and believes expressed and shared are our own.