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TechnoratiLights Worldwide to Go Dark for Earth Hour
From landmarks to homes, idea is to send message about global warming
Calling it a visual vote for climate action, organizers of an "Earth Hour" initiative expect 2,800 cities, dozens of companies and hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide to turn off or dim their lights for an hour Saturday night.
![[The Sydney skyline is lit before Earth Hour March 28, 2009. Lights went out at Sydney's famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark for an hour to highlight the threat from climate change. REUTERS/Patrick Riviere (AUSTRALIA CITYSCAPE ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/earthhour-2.jpg "earthhour-2.jpg")
Commitments have come in from 84 countries, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which organized the event because of its concerns about warming's impact on humans and wildlife.
"With Earth Hour, millions of people from all walks of life will demonstrate their commitment to take action on climate change," WWF CEO Carter Roberts said in a statement. "Turning off the lights is just the beginning. We're asking everyone to also make commitments to reduce their energy use during the rest of the year and to ask their elected representatives to do the right thing because we need climate legislation now."
Most electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, a process that emits carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas tied to warming. While renewable energy sources like solar and wind have no direct carbon emissions, they have yet to displace fossil fuels due to costs and efficiencies.
McDonald's will even soften the yellow glow from some Golden Arches as part of the time zone-by-time zone plan to dim nonessential lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to highlight global climate change.
Key landmarks expected to go dark or dim include:
* New York City's Broadway theater signs, Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building
* The Las Vegas strip
* The Opera House in Sydney, Australia
* The Eiffel Tower and Elysee Palace in Paris
* The Acropolis in Athens, Greece
* The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
* Niagara Falls
* The Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt
* The London Eye Ferris wheel
* The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Big growth since Sydney start in '07
Seven times more municipalities have signed on since last year's Earth Hour, which drew participation from 370 cities. Earth Hour first debuted in 2007 as an event just for Sydney, Australia. WWF estimated two million people switched off their lights that hour, followed by more than 50 million people in 2008.
Interest has spiked ahead of planned negotiations on a new U.N.-backed global warming treaty in Copenhagen, Denmark this December. The last global accord, the Kyoto Protocol, is set to expire in 2012.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promoted Earth Hour participation in a video posted this month on the event's YouTube channel.
"Earth Hour is a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message," Ban said. "They want action on climate change."
Other videos have been posted by celebrities such as rocker Pete Wentz and actor Kevin Bacon, and WWF has offered Earth Hour iPhone applications.
New studies increasingly highlight the ongoing effects of climate change, said Richard Moss, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and WWF's climate change vice president.
"We have satellites and we have ships out at sea and we have monitoring stations set up on buoys in the ocean," Moss said. "We monitor all kinds of things people wouldn't even think about. The scientific research is showing in all kinds of ways that the climate crisis is worsening."
Critic to add lighting to store
But not everyone agrees and at least one counter-protest is planned for Saturday.
Suburban Philadelphia ice cream shop owner Bob Gerenser believes global warming is based on faulty science and calls Earth Hour "nonsense."
The resident of New Hope, Pa., planned to illuminate his store with extra theatrical lighting.
"I'm going to get everyone I know in my neighborhood to turn on every light they possibly can to waste as much electricity as possible to underline the absurdity of this action ... by being absurd," he said.
Earth Hour 2009 has garnered support from global corporations, nonprofit groups, schools, scientists and celebrities - including Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
McDonald's Corp. plans to dim its arches at 500 locations around the Midwest. The Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont hotel chains and Coca-Cola Co. also plan to participate.
In the U.S., 220 cities, towns and villages have signed on - from New York City to Igiugig, population 53 on Iliamna Lake in southwestern Alaska.
Among the efforts in Chicago, 50,000 light bulbs at tourist hotspot Navy Pier will dim and 24 spotlights that shine on Sears Tower's twin spires will go dark.
"We're the most visible building in the city," said Angela Burnett, a Sears Tower property manager. "Turning off the lights for one hour on a Saturday night shows our commitment to sustainability."
Power use fell 5 percent in Chicago
The Commonwealth Edison utility said electricity demand fell by 5 percent in Chicago and northern Illinois during last year's Earth Hour, reducing about 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.
"It goes way beyond turning off the lights," said Roberts of the WWF. "The message we want people to take away is that it is within our power to solve this problem. People can take positive constructive actions."
While the WWF welcomed even more participants this year, it did draw a line in the electricity sand. "WWF officials stressed the importance of safety during Earth Hour, asking that all lighting related to public safety remain on," it said in a statement.
As for fears of a dangerous power surge if millions turn their power back on at the same time, WWF said it had that scenario covered. "We've checked with energy companies and authorities and turning all the lights back on won't cause any issue," it promised. "The load reduction should not be significant enough to disrupt supply post Earth Hour."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
17 Comments so far
Show AllWhy can't we have a global abortion ban for one hour every year?
Speaking of abortions...
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh announced on his radio program that he may put up a Christmas tree and outdoor lights to celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday night.
(UPI/NEWSCOM)
YAY Joe!
"It is a visual form of saying "You may think that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." -" Perfectly said!
I know it is symbolic, that is OK with me for an hour. A wave of darkness sweeping over the globe is like the music in "Close Encounters" - a form of expressing our connectedness and longing for unity, for something better. It is a visual form of saying "You may think that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
Joe
The evaporation of surface water cools the surface and creates water vapor that carryies heat away from the surface, rising in the atmosphere, transferring heat further up into the air column via conduction and depressurization, warming the upper atmosphere, condensing and casting off more of their heat which is then emitted into space via radiation, then the condensed water forms clouds, reflects heat back into space from incoming insolation, then falls back as rain and repeats the cycle.
Leave it to an AGWer to try to turn what is happening on its head.
Seems nobody wants to really model this process. Intuitively one would think that the earth's true blackbody equilibrium temperature of 255 degrees is manifested at altitude, not evenly but with altitude dependent upon the gaseous make up of the atmosphere where it radiates that 255 degrees on average give or take depending upon how much insolation actually reaches the ground.
Spectra analysis indicates that some of it is radiated at warmer levels from water vapor at presumably lower altitudes while additional amounts are radiated at higher altitudes by CO2 at cooler temperatures.
I would like to see calculations based upon gas laws to estimate how much of the approximate 30 degree surface temperature increase is due to gas pressurization at the surface and how much might be remaining from any alleged greenhouse effect before dividing that up into the various greenhouse constituencies, water vapor, natural CO2, and anthropogenic CO2.
I see folks ascribing all 30 degrees to greenhouse effects. I find that kind of inplausible.
So I imagine this amorphous shape of the blackbody signature of the earth and its atmosphere emitting at 255 degree centigrade give or take some depending upon variation on insolation with the surface temperatures averaging about 30 degrees higher because of the gas column pressurization. increased CO2's effects on that would be whatever mass it is adding to the gas column.
However, somebody might convince me otherwise if they could describe some process by which the capture of additional lower level radiation somehow significantly slows down net radiation.
I just don't see much room for any significant CO2 effects.
Further, I have some problems with the idea that CO2 only blocks outgoing radiation. Some solar radiation is coming in at the ideal frequencies for CO2 blocking and any required delay in processing these photons would backup the pipeline and allow lower levels of that kind of radiation to be completely blocked while hitting a saturation point for higher levels of outgoing radiation. The alleged delay would seem to provide some kind of balancing window.
Further while I don't know the actual properties of CO2, I don't kinow of anything that is completely transparent. Glass blocks IR but also slightly blocks the visible spectrum.
Having done some big models and being aware of how teensy filters can affect big models (anybody remember the multiplication effect of errors?), I am very concerned that we are nowhere near close to being able to accurately model these systems. Stock assessment models have similar problems as seldom are they within a few percentage points of being right. The numbers with these climate models are so small it seems at best you might have a slightly better than an even chance of even having the direction right. Very clearly the confidence levels are being tampered with and I know how much obvious tampering that requires. . . .one can always make a reasonable argument for the figures selected (or cherry picked if you will).
Bottom line is without a good cloud model, which everybody I am aware of says isn't possible, there isn't even an accurate way of describing how much insolation is reaching the ground. . . .much less model how much is getting trapped by a greenhouse effect, if any. Even if cloud models were available there are still issues with the upper layers of the atmosphere that are doing some rather strange things with changes in the sun.
This whole affair is really about nanny government loons. . . .and thats probably going to get worse before it gets better.
The WWF was founded in 1961 by Britain's Prince Phillip and the Netherland's Prince Bernhard. It started out and still is a haven for big game hunters. Find out what PETA thinks of the WWF. Prince Bernard wrote in his biography, "If reincarnation is true, I'd like to come back as a deadly virus and do the world a favor." Both princes and their cohort Julian Huxley(Aldous Huxley's brother)had ties to the Nazi's. The current director Dr.Claude Martin of Swizerland has close ties to the World Bank. These individuals are a far cry from your typical tree hugger. Global Warming is a cover for continuing the imperial control of global resources.The real aim is to reduce the world population. Huxley promoted enviromentalism because as he said in his own words,"Hitler has given eugenics a bad name."
That helps explain the willing participation of the likes of McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Dimming the lights is a metaphor for dimwitted ideas. Maybe they already knew that. I sound like a cynic? It's a corporate con job to make people think they care, sort of like those nauseating commercials from Chevron that PBS plays as a sponsor to the nightly news hour. Cue the sappy piano, enter a soft caring voice that attempts to lull us into their "we care" view about global warming. Yuk.
It's too late for us to be jacking ourselves off like this. We need REAL action. NOW.
But I agree, turning the lights off for an hour is one of those feel-good-instead of-effective-action.
In my effort to take effective action, I use an electric motor scooter for most local transportation weather permitting. In suburban areas, I have to put up with spontaneous mocking a ridicule from passers-by.
---USAn---
If nothing else, it might give a few kids the chance to see the night sky, with all its wonders unspoiled by man-made light pollution.
Seeing the sky again, unpolluted by bright lights, WOULD be great!!
The comment about McDonalds in this article, though, is sure irksome.
They will "dim a few" of their golden arches? Wow, how thoughtful of them.
Heaven forbid we miss seeing one of their burger joints from the highway!!
I would LOVE to see those blinkety-blank, ubiquitous Mickey D's signs go away!!
Permanently!!!
If nothing else, this Lights Out project is revealing which companies deserve our ire even more so than before.
samosamo
Quaint was the exact word I was going to use earlier but I decided to refrain, maybe I'd sound too cynical. I guess this a noble gesture and may bring some awareness but it sort of reminds me of reading about the troops in the trenches during WW1 taking a Christmas break and not fighting for a day. The Germans and Allied troops would cross over to the enemy, shake hands, maybe even exchange gifts, then, next day, back at the slaughter. If they could reconcile for a day, why not the rest of the year? same with this dimming gesture, why just an hour?
So McDonald's and Coca-Cola are going to dim their lights too. Maybe Coke will unveil a new "dim the lights for a better world" song. Then we can all go back to feeling good that we fought the good fight against global warming.
I don't have to shut off the TV for an hour do I? Just the lights, right?
I think it's a definite achievement. Start with one hour, then move up. Eventually it will be 24/7/365.
What about the Dude in Philadelphia??? Gee, why doesn't he just turn on all the taps and let them run for an hour or so, too? Hey, he could even fire up the engine in his car and just let it idle as part of the celebration!
N.M.
This is about more than light-- this is about affirmation that global warming is a serious and yes tragic happening to sad to even think straight about !
We need to meditate, to think how we can turn into a new direction and even if right now we can just buy time until the right technology is in place-- we must do it because Dr david Woodruff , biologist at UC in Santa Barbara gave a first of 5 lectures on "Nature Matters"- extinction of species is occuring at a record - 40 species became extinct since you got up this morning as per this famous biologist-- now that is including all species of course not only mammals but beatles which are the most species - however, we MUST echange course.
For what it is worth, how quaint. Until each house hold and individual can have the apparat to collect their own power, this is just a weak show of protest against the privatization of grand larceny of the people for something they should only have to pay for the apparatus to provide individual energy.
As a matter of fact, maybe, just think of the market potential of selling the equipment to collect this energy plus the maintenance of it. Think of the pressure taken off the environment.
I know this idea of generation your own power via rooftop PV is popular among the generally affluent readership of CD, but not all of us live in big suburban homes in sunny western US states.
Plus, there are efficiencies of scale - the manufacture of all all those PV systems, particularly the battery storage setups could have far more environmental impact than large scale systems.
---USAn---