Earth Hour?

Apparently in North America at least, Earth Hour will be observed tonight at 8pm. Environmentally conscious participants will shut everything using some kind of energy source, be it electricity and gas, for one hour.

No lights, no TV, no movies, video games, and horror of horrors, no Internet connection.

While it's an admirable thought to give Mother Earth a break for 60 minutes, someone forgot to tell China about the idea.

There's been no word here about Earth Hour, and it's strange considering the country will be hosting what it promises will be a "Green Olympics".

Having 1.3 billion people cut down on their energy consumption would have been great, but probably not feasible in this place where most people don't have much understanding of what they are doing to the environment.

Part of it isn't their fault -- their government keeps talking about being more environmentally friendly but doesn't give its people practical steps to pitch in to save the planet. The only looming deadline is June 1 when people will have to pay extra for shopping bags.

But in a small development -- my apartment complex has bins outside with labels "to recycle" and "not to recycle". A few days ago when it was really windy, the top blew over only to find the bin for recyclables was stuff in plastic bags. I couldn't tell what was inside them.

These bins should really be on every single floor of the 28-storey building in each of the four buildings. But it's a start.... I guess.