If education about our "carbon footprint" is your mission, then you owed it to the environment to tell the audience that candles and a fire in the fireplace during "Earth Hour '08" produces a remarkable amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Get real!

Sent by Rick Henningsen | 4:25 PM ET | 03-31-2008

Hooray for Google for having a black screen on Saturday! Even though I work for S.C.'s environmental agency I had not heard about Earth Hour until I got on the computer Saturday. Anyway, even though our Earth Hour went from 8:30 - 9:30 (had to finish cooking dinner), we had a blast. I noticed during dinner how much light you can get from candles. After dinner my 4th grade daughter got our her "Scary Stories to Read in the Dark" book and
we took turns reading stories by flashlight for about 45 minutes while my husband listened (with his eyes closed). Our 11th grade son had friends come over during this time and they thought what we were doing was pretty cool. He had his room lit with candles while they played a video game (OK, not all power was off!). When the hour was up the teens, my daughter and I played a roudy game of Apples to Apples and then we all watched Carolina beat Kentucky (Go Heels!). I certainly hope to do this each year at the least but would be willing to have lights out on our own more often.

Sent by Lisa Hajjar | 5:32 PM ET | 03-31-2008