8:30pm local time march 28, 2009, wherever you live on planet earth

Lima:

Toronto:

London:

Want more? Visit the Earth Hour group on Flickr - already more than 3000 photos posted!

green your spring cleaning

If you're planning to get down and dirty and clean house, your vinegar and water spray bottle may need some friends. Here are some of our recommendations...

Enjo's Kitchen Glove removes grease with cold water. Yes, cold water!

Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds is an all-purpose cleaner made from fir and spruce needle oils. Effective, yet totally biodegradable.

Nature Clean's Calcium, Rust and Lime Remover is phosphate free and septic-safe. Get it at grassroots.

Into homemade? lesstoxicguide.ca is by far the best resource we have seen, with fun and friendly recipes for every cleaning need you can think of.

think you could do it?

A month without plastic. A year without waste. Banning food that travels more than 100 miles. Read about some brave people who've done it and get inspired...

A reporter for the Chicago Tribune - plus her husband, 3-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy - try to live without plastic for a week. From paper diapers to shampoo pucks, she learns that it's best to take this one step at a time.

If you can't imagine having no coffee, tea, chocolate, olive oil, or even sugar in your diet for 100 days, watch the The 100-Mile Challenge, premiering April 5 on Food Network Canada.

Inspired by the best-selling book The 100-Mile Diet by James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, the series follows six British Columbian families who make the difficult, but rewarding, commitment to consume only food and drink produced within a 100-mile radius for 100-days.

And if you need more inspiration, The Story of Stuff is a good place to start.

expos & trade shows & exhibits, oh my!

For those of us living in the northerly regions, March is a time to put away the mittens and say hello to spring - regardless of how cold it actually still is.

It's also a time to mark our calendars for the myriad green shows and expos in bloom this year. Here's a non-exhaustive list contributed by some of our readers:

• Toronto, ON: Green Living Show, April 24-26 (thanks cathy)
  
• Ottawa, ON: Go Green Expo, March 21-22
  
• Atlanta, GA: Greenprints, March 25-26 (thanks b.r.)
  
• Edmonton, AB: Go Green Eco-Expo, April 4 (thanks mark)
  
• Toronto, ON: Canadian Environmental Tradeshow, April 20-21
  
• Peterborugh, ON: Green Expo, April 25
  
• St. Paul, MN: Living Green Expo, May 2-3 (thanks rich)
  
• New York City, NY: Go Green Expo, April 17-19 (thanks jan)
  
• Atlanta, GA: Go Green Expo, June 26-28 (thanks again jan)
  
• Boise, ID: Idaho Green Expo, July 18-19 (thanks john)
  
• Oaks, PA: PANTS09, July 28 - 30 (thanks kerri)
  
  

And for all you would-be exhibitors out there, Green Exhibitors is a must-visit.