This year?s event was another joyous occasion, even with a few last minute glitches.
This year?s event was another joyous occasion, even with a few last minute glitches. Brothers, Kai and Ryan Kalama, accompanied by local drummer, Barry Karsh, elevated the musical experience far beyond expectations with a full repertoire of inspiring songs for Earth Hour, ranging from ?Imagine? to ?This Little Light of Mine?, and some impromptu variations along the way.
Another real crowd pleaser was the inspiring words from Rebecca Robles of the Acjachemen people who originally inhabited these lands. Her soothing words were full of hope and empowerment as she eloquently connected the significance of people coming together to address climate change locally and around the world. Then Laurie Headrick, Co-founder of San Clemente Green, stepped in for our other guest speaker who had a last minute family emergency, with some practical energy and resource saving tips of her own. Did you know that by simply replacing incandescent bulbs with the new CFLs, and taking other basic and inexpensive measures you can reduce your energy consumption by 20% to 30%?
While attendance for Earth Hour continued its upward trend around the world, San Clemente?s participation seemed to have dropped off a bit. This was largely attributable to the last minute preparations due to an urgent shift in focus at San Clemente Green towards San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) safety concerns. We just were not sure we could pull off another Earth Hour in between the many issues that keep popping up around SONGS, but we did it to the best of our ability, and the results were very good, considering the circumstances. Our only regret was that fewer people were able to enjoy a program that in many ways exceeded anything we put together in previous years.