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Technorati"Earth Hour" Goes Global
LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO - The Sydney Opera House to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge went dark as people switched off lights in their homes and skylines dimmed around the world on Saturday to show concern with global warming.
Up to 30 million people were expected to have turned off their lights for 60 minutes by the time "Earth Hour" -- which started in Suva in Fiji and Christchurch in New Zealand -- completed its cycle westward.
More than 380 towns and cities and 3,500 businesses in 35 countries signed up for the campaign that is in its second year after it began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia's largest city.
"Earth Hour shows that everyday people are prepared to pull together to find a solution to climate change. It can be done," said James Leape of WWF International, which was running the campaign.
Lights at Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge were lowered as Australians held candle-lit beach parties, played poker by candlelight and floated candles down rivers.
In Bangkok, some of the city's business districts, shopping malls and billboards went dark, although street lights stayed on. One major hotel invited guests to dine by candle light and reported brisk business.
In Copenhagen, the Tivoli Gardens and the Royal Palace and the opera darkened for an hour, along with many street lights.
"In the central square a lot of people were standing looking at the stars," said Ida Thuesen, spokeswoman for WWF Denmark. "It's not often you can see the stars in a city."
GOOGLE GOES DARK
In a tip of its virtual hat to the event, the background of Google's home page turned to black from white on more than a dozen country sites including Google.com. A message on the site read: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn." and directed visitors to conserve energy when using computers.
Floodlights went out at landmarks in Budapest, including its castle, cathedral and parliament.
In Britain, 26 town and city councils signed up to switch off nonessential lights as did several historic buildings, including Prince Charles' private residence Highgrove House, London City Hall, Winchester Cathedral and the Government Communication Headquarters radio monitoring station. The south coast town of Brighton turned off the lights on its pier.
The movement crossed the Atlantic to the United States and Canada, where the 1,815-foot (553-metre) CN Tower in Toronto and the surrounding skyline were plunged into temporary darkness.
In Toronto, many restaurants offered candlelight dining. The golden arches at a corner McDonalds were dark, though the restaurant itself was brightly lit. Supporters held "dark parties," glow-in-the-dark soccer games and lantern walks.
News helicopters swooped low over city streets, where banks had switched off the neon signs atop their skyscrapers.
Landmarks such as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Chicago's Sears Tower went dark in the closing hours of Saturday's round-the-world event.
"It is not just about turning off the lights, it is about raising awareness," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "Energy efficiency is low-hanging fruit. Energy efficiency is the easiest thing we can do" to reduce global warming.
Buildings account for about one-third of the carbon emissions that scientists say will boost global average temperatures by between 1.4 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century, bringing floods and famines and putting millions of lives at risk.
Organizers of Earth Hour said that while switching off a light for one hour would have little impact on carbon emissions, the fact that so many people were taking part showed how much interest and concern at the climate crisis had taken hold. They said they plan a similar event March 28, 2009.
Additional reporting by Michael Perry and James Thornhill in Sydney, Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo, Ploy Chitsomboon in Bangkok and Alister Doyle in Oslo, and Janet Guttsman, Renato Andrade and Patricia Launt in Toronto; editing by Doina Chiacu
© 2008 Reuters
34 Comments so far
Show AllGoing dark as most of you have stated was a great success around the globe. However, it is an easy thing to do, to turn off one's lights for a while and maybe sacrifice a few hours of electricity I agree it was fun.
There are those who do not care about the climate, those who don't care about anything that is happening in the world, Darfur or Iraq. Those are the people that we as a nation need to address, there has to be some sort of legislature put into place to motivate those who do not care!
GO EARTH HOUR!!!
Immigrants in poor countrys coming to America find the message. Waste what you need. Waste what is not needed. Waste waste waste. Who is getting the profit? Not the common man. The rich man always will have so much he is not needing he will not care about your need. The poor man copys the rich man to be like him in hope for his own life dreaming. It is a foolish hoping due to the poor man can not still feed his family, his children educations, to get a doctor, to get a lawyer and on and on to most simple lifes things but they ae needed things when you come here.
I am thankful I am in this counry. I am legal. But is not to much better than I came from.
EARTH ACHES due to humanity's abusive behavior and relentless desire to control everything. But for an hour--Earth Hour--millions of humans relinquished a little control and liberated starlight from wasteful light pollution. Astronomers, stargazers, and stargeezers like me need to help make next year's Earth Hour even darker, providing stellar views of the Milky Way to millions more people. To learn more about liberating starlight in your community, please read my Web site:
http://www.darkskyinitiative.org
Near me is Cherry Spring Park in Pennslyvania- the darkest sky of the East Coast and the darling of astronomers. They have really cool meetings there and you can wander around and get a great lecture on what stars are out etc. Goole it up and be there!!
Do the people who already have their lights off and who do not have a car get any extra brownie points?
It is almost as though people believe turning off a few lights will change global warming around.
China and India will appreciate your efforts.
Wow ... I wonder how much money the energy companies lost during that one hour! ;-)
We need to do this on a daily basis. As an amateur astronomer, turning off lights at night has been an issue of mine for more than 20 years. Besides helping save energy, we can revive the night sky!
In the next 20 years, we may face non-voluntary outages that we will have no control over. Let's get the awareness out there now!
Mas 1946 and others saying this:
"let's get this thing going…doing it every week"
I live in Asuncion, Paraguay and it is such a progressive city that we have lights out/Earth hour or hours almost daily! And without warning to add a little more fun to it!
hey, kids!
what kind of candles are you burning? paraffin wax is petroleum based--go a step further and use soy or beeswax candles. :)
Another tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree moment, before we drive the suv downtown to sign a logging contract in the national forest.
Lets all not go to work for a week, or even leave the house, unlwess one is a medical field, or works in a vital to the public job, such as supplying water, electricty and fuel etc.
For those already out of work or retired, don't leave the house unless it's an emergency, don't buy ANYTHING for a week, ___ nothing! Stock up with a week's necessities and food and stay home. The "green flu" and call you congress person every hour for a week and tell them you want the impeachment process initiated. Call your TV stations every hour and or E-mail them and tell them you are boy-cotting the news channels and then do it.
Wow, that would get some attention. If congess ignored it, do it again the next month.
I completly agree with the one night a month, then one night a week idea, but how about 3 hourse instead of one.
One question thought, why the hell cant businesses turn off their unnessecary lights anyway? If they are not needed switching them off, and computers at the wall, will save them lots of money.
I myself didnt participate in earth hour because I cant save more electricity then i already do. Usually the only things at the wall are the fridge and my laptop, on powersaver mode, everything else is off and the house is dark :)
Also the WWF is evil because it is lobbying for goverments to increase the amount of testing required for pesicides and other chemicals. DONT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY !!
http://www.wickedwildlifefund.com/
Let's HONK TO IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY on a specific day at a specific hour . . . honking on and off for one hour.
I remember when the Orioles won the world series and horn-blowing went on for several hours . . . which could be heard in out-lining neighbourhood.
"What happened in Washington, D.C. - no participation there?…no mention of the White House going dark most probably means they didn't participate."
On a different level, the White House has been in the DARK for at least (7) years now...
Earth Hour was great, the Kaleisia Tea Lounge in Tampa hosted a potluck dinner for students from University of South Florida with the lights off. It was loads of fun, and I can't wait for the next one.
The local stores are selling CF bulbs at a low subsidized price. The utility company is working with a grant to sell them at under one dollar a piece. People look at the price and buy one and try it out. They find that it works fine and how much it will save and how long it will last and they are convinced. Now you have another person who knows that conservation does not mean freezing in the dark.
I often go completely dark (with the exception of the refrigerator) so it wasn't much of an inconvenience for me, but it was heartening to hear that others who I know who don't tend to exhibit any particular global environmental consciousness were taking part in the event.
It's amazing how many people participated in this and yes, it is more about raising consciousness than actual savings but I love the idea of increasing the frequency.
I really hope that more people will turn off their lights, switch to CF or LED lights, or maybe even carpool *gasp,* or start recycling as a result of their heightened resolve after something like this. I don't see how anything negative could result from this, even if your candles are shrink-wrapped in plastic the benefits of regular, voluntary blackouts would probably exceed the environmental costs of burning a few of them.
Make sure you buy those candles "locally." Better yet make them yourselves. Remember the 70s?
No sweat, we ARE going to have that looming "BUSHIE" depression and don't worry about turning OFF the lights, ___ they'll be off, along with a few other sorry things, like rationed gasoline at ten bucks plus a gallon.
Sorry to be a wet blanket during a fun discussion, but couldn't help it after reading the latest financial reports from those who know the score. __ Better stock up on candles gang, they're a good buy at dollar stores.
My wife and I decided that we would do this once a month. Maybe for a couple or three hours instead of just one. Once a week, once a month, whenever, it's all good.
Isn't is funny how good unplugging for a little while feels? No incessant chattering, not hums, no whirs or beeps - just peace and quiet, our own thoughts and some nice conversation. Could this be the beginning of the return to sanity?
"What happened in Washington, D.C. - no participation there?…no mention of the White House going dark most probably means they didn't participate."
Oh no, Bush was in. He was overhead saying "I'm all for the Earth bein' ours!"
What happened in Washington, D.C. - no participation there?...no mention of the White House going dark most probably means they didn't participate. I suppose Bush is going it alone again - allowing his assinine logic to rule supreme. "Global warmin' aint happenin' come'on people, GO out and shop!"
How can something so simple, be so much fun?
I'm a sustainability administrator at a private research university. I worked with several students to do some sympolic darkening of campus landmark(s), plus voluntary darkening of dorm rooms (can't darken the whole dorm for safety reasons), plus integrating Earth Hour into a pre-existing community service event. All in all, not bad for a first-year, grass-roots effort, and we hope to do more next time.
So imagine my surprise when I'm talking on the phone to my 81-year-old mother Saturday afternoon. She tells me -- totally unprompted -- that she's going out for dinner with a couple of her friends, but that they're going to be sure to be home by 8:00 to make sure that the lamps they have on timers are switched off for Earth Hour!
This thing has gotten very big, very fast. It feels like it has legs to go the distance. From annual, maybe the next step is monthly (rather than weekly), but the idea of increased frequency is tremendous. (Kudos to simonhhh.)
As I recall Earth Day was started to bring awareness about pollution on our planet. Having one day for this did not reduce pollution, but having people aware of the issue did.
I see a similar situation here. One hour one day per year will not reduce global warming significantly, but perhaps the awareness will. Conservation is more than a personal virtue, it can and should be part of our energy policy.
The present U.S. administration might say that if you want to turn out your lights, that is your choice. That statement emphasizes the individual and not society. One person and one light can do little, but a million people with a million lights can do a lot.
Remember H.W. Bush's phrase about 1000 points of light. He was referring to volunteer organisations and not collective action, but the principle is similar. There is power in numbers and this is something that can move mountains.
I'm in.
Oh,...there it goes...having trouble logging in. Not sure why.
Anyway, I sent emails to all my friends and contacts as well as all my reps. in state and federal govt., requesting a regular One Hour Lights Out every Saturday night. I included Gavin Newsom in SF.
Let's ALL get on this, OK?
pennerblu, sorry for the unnecessary email...
I Love this! The possibilities are endless. What a wonderful way to send a message to a planet. This article is what I call Good News. I simply Love this!
Hi all,
Yes, Namaste, let's get this thing going...doing it every week. I don't consider having one hour of darkness, no TV, no microwave oven, etc. much of a sacrifice. But on regular basis it might make even more of an impact, both in example and benefit.
How many people tune in here to CD? How many can they email across the USA and the world? Let's do it!!!
Then, let's also email our reps. in our states and in D.C. Do you think they will get flack from the utility companies?
Every Saturday night from 8-9 pm local time, lights out.
Benefits to individuals listed:
Closer family time
More reading
Meditation and prayer
Evening walks around your area
I liked the reports of these types of occurrences and restaurants offering dinners by candlelight and doing a brisk business. I suppose not all business will think this so great, but I like the idea of creative use of such an event.
Every Saturday Night from 9pm to Midnight every week 52 weeks a year...every city
It is noted many State and Local Government throughout the world had their lights switched off all Saturday Night on the 29th...
It proves where there is the will there can be REAL change...
How about we have another,
every week,
until loonitary_unitard and darth_darkling
are in prison ?
Let's ACT about being again able to sleep at night … … …
Namaste
So will there be a baby boom nine months from Earth hour?
I'm sure some skeptics will chime in, but really, doing whatever we can do as individuals is true power. Disempowerment comes when we expect our "leaders" to lead us out of this mess. Empowerment comes when individuals lead our society into the reality we want.
Plus, it felt good to turn off the power, disengage from the electrical world, and talk by candlelight.
Amen, Zoya . . . amen!
Ok, people, if so many of us can join in this small symbolic act--thanks to modern communications--we can all join to stop the war, stop global warming, stop NAFTA, stop economic globalization, etc., etc. It's definitely a start.