Today there were blackouts rolling across the globe. From Sydney to Stockholm light of government buildings, monuments, households and corporations went dim. This was not because of lack of energy, but was a form of protest because we are using too much energy. This rolling black out was part of Earth Hour, is a campaign organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that encourages individuals, corporations and governments to turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for climate action. This year, that day is today. From 8:30 to 9:30 pm, monumental buildings and millions of people all over the world turned off (or will turn off) their lights to take a stand against climate change. This is an action in motion, so you might still have time to participate as it rolls westward….

Barcelona was no exception. As the lights shut off on Gaudi's monumental Sagrada Familia, 350 Barcelona was there with WWF to cheer in this event. And we were not alone! Dozens of drummers filled the darkness that befell this cathedral with music as a fire-dancer juggled fire and over a hundred people moved to the beat. A few of us sneaked off with some hand-held LED lights and created this image. Even though we were far away, we could still hear the sound of the darkness The sound of the drummers was filling the air with the sound of change.

The darkening of the Sagrada Familia was only the culimination of a whole days worth of events. Seizing upon this opportunity to educate locals about climate change and what they could do about it. We joined forces to help publicize recent local recycling initiative that has placed blue, yellow, red and brown garbage containers all over the city. We made a few quick puppets of a cardboard box, a soda can, and a tomato, and quizzed passerbys by giving them a piece of "garbage" and asking them to recycle it. Many thought it was just for kids, but a surpising number of adults were confused about the new recycling system. I, for example, learned that here we can recycle plastic bags!

WWF also gave away seedlings of tomatos, peppers, and eggplant to teach people about the benefits of local food production. Our tomato puppet was thrilled about this, and found dozes to adopt his "cousins". I am about to go transplant my chili peppers into my window box. A local 350 organizer brought  large numbers (3-5-0) cut out of cardboard and invited people to help paint them. By the end of the night these pieces of cardboard were painted and dancing through the crowd. For us here in Barcelona, this day was about more than just "turning off the lights", but it was about sharing a joyous movement and growing change.

Actions such as Earth Hour inspire me, because we can see the whole globe acting as one entity, as one organism. This allows us to   feel how huge this movement is, and to know that there are millions of people involved. But this action also makes me realize how far we have to go. As the lights went out on the Sagrada Familia, the street lights stayed on, the cars whizzed past, and the bars and tourist shops stayed illuminated. However, everyone that walked past stopped to ask what all the rukus was about. Everyone was curious as to why everyone was dancing and drumming. They were witnessing the power of our growing climate movement, a movement so festive and beautiful that they found themselves drawn in – moving to the rhythm and laughing with strangers. Who knows? Maybe when they got back home, the didn't turn on the lights.