What did you get up to in the dark on Saturday?
We're referring of course to Earth Hour, the 60 minutes starting at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night when everyone was supposed to turn their lights out in the name of energy conservation and - by extension - saving the planet from climate change.
Did you look down the street to check out which of your neighbours had managed to tear themselves away from Netflix for an hour of candlelight conversation?
Thought not.
Chances are, if you're like most of the population, the event passed with little notice.
Earth Hour was once a "thing." Cities competed for the darkest skyline. It was socially shameful to be the one house on the block with your lights on.
Earth Hour was a laudable effort, reminding us of how much energy we use, how dependent we are on it and how individual choices can make a difference.
The problem is that the larger changes needed fall not to individuals but to the collective. And government policy has not followed suit. While they may be happy to dim the lights for an hour, not only has our federal government failed to take action with policies that would curb climate change, they are either ignoring or actively dismantling most of the past progress in this area.
The feds have scaled back environmental regulations, ignored Canada's commitment to international greenhouse gas reduction targets and sent a chill through groups advocating for more attention to climate change by sending in the auditors - and spies.
And, to top it off, they have continually allied themselves with big oil companies and refused to support calls for more open public hearings on projects such as pipelines and a process that takes climate change into consideration.
In Parliament, the lights are on, but the trouble is nobody's home.
