Don't Forget Earth Hour Tonight!

Tonight at 8:30 p.m. your local time, turn off all of your lights and unplug all of your nonessential appliances. Unplug your coffee pot, microwave, TV, DVD player, sound system. Charging your cell phone or iPod? Unplug 'em for this hour. Unplug everything you can. Go off the grid until 9:30!

So what do you do in the dark for an hour, especially if you're in a cold climate like us? If you live in a city, especially near a downtown area with lots of skyscrapers, go outside. It could be really cool to see your city's landmark buildings go dark for this simple, hour-long call to action on global climate change. Last year's news coverage had great photos of places like Paris, New York, Chicago and Las Vegas dimming their normally well-lit recognizable buildings. It was moving.

Live in the country? Go outside and watch the sky.

Don't want to go outside? Maybe a candlelit dinner is for you. Or flashlight tag. Or snuggling under a blanket. I'm sure you can think of something.

For more information about Earth Hour, go to www.earthhour.org.