Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Earth Hour 2.0 a Success
City smashes last year's record low power usage as lights dim across the GTA and as far away as Beijing
And the environmentalists said let there be darkness. And - for an hour, at least - there was darkness: in downtown office towers and suburban homes, in stores big-box and mom-and-pop, at gatherings long-planned and impromptu.
St. Cuthbert's Anglican Church in Toronto during their candlelight meditation to mark Earth Hour on March 28, 2009. ( TARA WALTON /TORONTO STAR) Not a solution, no, but a statement. At 9:30 p.m., the conclusion of the second global Earth Hour, the meter at Toronto Hydro's control centre that measures city-wide electricity demand hit 2,545 megawatts - 15 per cent below typical demand at that time and 7 per cent below the lowest demand during Earth Hour in 2008.
Toronto's reduction of 455 megawatts was larger than the cumulative savings of the entire GTA during last year's event.
"Torontonians want to do what's right for the environment because they get it," Mayor David Miller told a cheering crowd at Nathan Phillips Square. "It's a privilege to be mayor of a city that gets it."
The increasing local popularity of Earth Hour, for which people worldwide were asked to turn off their lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., reflected its rapid growth internationally. Launched in Sydney by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 to raise awareness of the perils of climate change, it spread to more than 35 countries, including Canada, in 2008.
More than 80 countries and 3,000 cities participated today. Organizers claimed about 1 billion people spent the hour in the dark, an exponential increase from perhaps 50 million last year.
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower went noir. In Toronto, the CN Tower became as inconspicuous as a 553-metre building can ever be. In Athens, officials switched off the floodlights illuminating the Acropolis, an icon of western civilization. In Toronto, Honest Ed's iconically garish 23,000-bulb marquee temporarily ceased beckoning.
GTA hotels and stores welcomed guests by candlelight. Community groups hosted flashlight-lit walks. Amateur astronomers, savouring a rare approximation of light conditions in less dense locales, set up their telescopes in parks.
And tens of thousands congregated in private homes and public squares to both demonstrate their concern for the planet's fate and to share in the low-wattage spectacle.
At Nathan Phillips Square, thousands gathered for the city's official Earth Hour event, which featured a free concert. Many waved colourful glow sticks, loudly counting down the seconds until the beginning of the hour and cheering as City Hall went dark at the stroke of 8:30.
Many lights, of course, remained on. During the hour, Katie Szeto, 17, sat on a bench facing Queen St. W., looking dejectedly at the sky. "I'm a little disappointed, because I can't see the stars," said Szeto.
"And I'm sad that some buildings aren't dimmed," she said, pointing to several well-lit apartment buildings overlooking City Hall.
Organizers attempted to depict Earth Hour as a "global election," pitting people who "vote Earth" by turning their lights off versus people who "vote global warming" by leaving their lights on.
Some 250 Canadian cities participated. Yet some Canadians remained skeptical, arguing the event was little more than an exercise in feel-good tokenism.
At Dundas Square, hundreds lined up for free water filters Brita distributed to mark Earth Hour.
Olesya Kolisnyk, an environmentally conscious 29-year-old near the front of the line, said she had "very low expectations" about the event's long-term impact, though she supported the concept. "Something is better than nothing. Maybe we can do it quarterly."
WWF organizers said they acknowledged the limitations of a one-hour annual event. But they argued the event's worldwide popularity could influence governments to sign a new international accord on carbon emissions at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
"This is a critical year for climate," WWF Canada president and chief executive officer Gerald Butts has said. "We need to come out of Copenhagen with a workable deal, based on science, that is going to lower carbon emissions globally. We think this is a turning point."
China, whose support environmental groups consider essential to the success of any worldwide climate plan, participated in Earth Hour for the first time, turning off the lights at prominent Olympic venues and office towers.
During last year's Earth Hour, Milton, Newmarket, Aurora and Halton Hills cut their electricity use by a greater percentage than Toronto. Milton led by the GTA with a 15 per cent reduction.
Before last night, Hydro officials cautiously predicted a Toronto decrease of 10 per cent. At the control centre, supervisors smiled as the reduction far surpassed expectations. "Torontonians have come through big time," said grid operations supervisor John Fletcher.
And then the city powered up. By 9:40 p.m., consumption had increased by 30 megawatts.
- Posted in
24 Comments so far
Show AllMy city, good ole' eco-friendly Portland, reluctantly participated this year, finally, but neglected to get the word out and so basically nothing happened here. I was downtown and all lights were blazing everywhere as usual.
Eco-friendly Portland doesn't even have a light pollution ordinance. The folks in the street lighting department are adamantly opposed to that and the city council is completely out to lunch on it. But of course, we've reduced our CO2 emissions to below 1990 levels (thanks to creative math, that is).
Meanwhile, our sustainably minded leaders are planning on building a new 12-lane bridge over the Columbia River, building a new soccer stadium for the benefit of Hank Paulson (of Treasury Secretary big-bank bailout fame) and his son, and making way for another doubling of our population in 50 years.
Indeed
Also in Portland, and walked to the bluffs overlooking the city, and noticed...nothing.
I thought for sure Portland would be dark. Being Portland and all. I did hear they turned off the mayors house, the convention center towers, the Made in Oregon sign and Rose Garden but thats it...really?
I did notice the thousands of lights glowing away in Swan Island. What a turn off. :)
The time I lived in Portland was great. They're usually very progressive. I don't think the crime around Lloyd Center or along Burnside would go up just because the streets weren't lit but I'm sure that'll be their excuse.
>>>licketyglick wrote: Meanwhile, our sustainably minded leaders are planning on building a...a new soccer stadium...
Don't know about building a new stadium, but if soccer were to replace the more wasteful sports such as hockey (should be called "ice hockey"), golf and even football (the American version - in most of the rest of the world, football means actually soccer), it may not be a bad idea. And winter sports should be limited to only places where they have natural snow and ice. Creating artificial snow for skiers is the height of mindless indulgence in the name of "recreation". Skating and hockey rinks are nothing but giant freezers that are left open. Sports and games have always been part of all cultures - it's only in the last 100 years that so many insane activities, that were earlier available to aristocrats, became mainstream.
This exercise in futility shows the human trait of denial of the base problems of overpopulation. We have this unbelievable trait to separate the problems we have into material thoughts. By believing that if we turn off the electricity for one hour it will somehow prove that we can conserve energy and will be better for it. Nowhere do we understand that the reason we are using more energy, or other resources, the we are overcrowded, and overpopulated. This turning off the lights for an hour does not address the real problem.
Turning off the computer, TV and lights for an hour addresses the problem of underpopulation.
So now its underpopulation. This is true if you like overcrowding, tripping over everyone and constantly trying to fix problems that are caused by overpopulation.
You are right. It might be good to have a night when everyone refrained from you know what. Turning off the lights probably increased, not decreased that activity.
What pretension.
Earth hour is annoyingly symbolic (why isn't every hour earth hour?). I keep all unneeded lights off in my house anyway, and hardly ever use far more power-ravenous central AC.
The whole thing smacks of the sort of things 90's Neoliberal-Rock star Bono would do with the Davos elites.
But as a consciousness raising device, earth hour isn't entirely useless.
---USAn---
The pseudo-progressives love stunts.
That's how they hide from the boss class.
I am doing plenty of real things to reduce my carbon footprint, but for the heck of it, my home participated. We saw no evidence of any other homes on the surrounding hillsides participating - porch lights on on every one of them. But we didn't expect any participation.
I agree that street lighting has gotten excessive in a lot of areas. Virtually every grown adult I know don't even know what the milky way is.
A couple years ago, I bought a couple battery-electric motor scooters and upgraded their battery packs to Lithium cells (like the scooters, only available from China, unfortunately), It was part of an environmental activism project - I even printed up information cards to had out to interested curious bystanders who I figured I would encounter at every traffic light or parking area. Boy, was I naive! In spite of the "electric" stickers on it and it's silent operation, most completely fail to notice, or care it is electric. Most just assume I am a drunk who lost his license, or other "loser" riding a Chinese "moped" as they call it. Ridicule and catcalls outnumber expressions of interest 10 to 1.
I suspect I would encounter a lot more interest in Toronto, but down here, doing the right think is lonely endeavor and requires a thick skin.
---USAn---
Jeevee
WHERE did this occur?
Earth hour occurred around the world. A fairly big deal was made about it in most countries - as this Canadian news story indicates.
Probably only in the US was knowledge of it limited to the liberal/yuppie urban enclaves.
---USAn---
In California, we started turning off the lights months ago. Unfortunately I think it only got brighter in Arizona, Nevada and Utah. When will other states start following our example!?
It didn't effect Tucson, but then Tucson has very few street lights probably because it's too cheap. It does however have the largest murder rate for a city of its size.
What a luxury, getting to turn off the lights for an hour.
It won't be long before the luxury will be being able to turn them on.
Also, not to be too paranoid about it, but to what extent did the World Wildlife Federation coordinate this project with power generators across the globe---esp. in Australia---to test power-down capacity as an efficiency measure? In Iraq they have had involuntary blackouts for years if not decades by now. What if these were actually coordinated as a green measure to avoid peak loading, and overuse of inefficient home generators?
-30-
I am a bit chagrined to read the negativity of some regarding an honest attempt to popularize the environmental movement and make folks more aware. I do understand the symbolism may be offputting and the effect negligible but that is beside the point I think.
From such small things larger things are made manifest. As I sat in my home ,in the dark, I found great comfort in an almost meditative state. No TV, no radio, no lights but much peace.
I agree. Turning off all the electricity (except perhaps the fridge?) is a way to set the stage for meditation. Perhaps we should do it more often. I am not Jewish, but long ago I made Friday evening a post-work week haven from chores. No laundry, no cleaning, no shopping. Otherwise it would be work work work all day all the time. Maybe, with agreement of family, I can add a more conscious effort to turn off all electronic forms of entertainment to replicate the peace of earth hour.
Joe
You may not agree with this specific action, but are we not all agreed on the principles of conservation and saving the earth? I think we should be kinder to each other as we try to tackle the problems of the world. Nobody has all the answers.
Joe
Ironic photograph. Reminds me of those who attend church only at Xmas and Easter. Makes 'em feel good for a day, then it's back to the same old same old.
This is the sort of symbolic event that should have been held 10+ years ago (Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997, and the problem of climate change was known long before). Scientists have revised their projections and warnings - there is now a much smaller window of opportunity to stabilize greenhouse gas levels and limit the damage.
I personally think that this type of event can be counterproductive unless a a majority of the people realize that it is ONLY symbolic - only to draw attention to the crisis, and, in and of itself, has very little meaning, if, after this hour people go back to their wasteful and extravagant ways of living and entertainment. It can be counterproductive if people get the feeling that they have "done their part" - that would be insane, but it is possible that some people might get that feeling.
It is alarming that not many are talking about the role of meat production - just Google "Livestock's Long Shadow" - how come no one talked about this report during the Earth Hour?
I have been practically a vegan since 1985, I haven't owned a car in almost a year now (even when I owned it, I used it so little - that's one reason I gave it away - because I have to pay insurance even when I wasn't driving it). So when my family reminded me of the Earth Hour to turn off the lights, I said, forget it, since I was doing something important on the computer at that time. And I had just come back buying groceries - carrying 27 lbs of veggies and other stuff and walking 10 blocks (20 blocks, round trip), and I was in no mood to join this frivolous exercise just so my neighbors wouldn't notice. As far as I'm concerned, such an event is too little, too late, and likely counterproductive if it induces any feeling of "having done one's part". It's time to crank up the efforts towards more fundamental and more significant changes.
I not only don't own a car, I don't even own an appliance or computer. Being Vegan is nice, but we really need to embrace home gardening and cut the dollars away from corporate "grocery" stores. Personally, I've trained my body to subsist on 1 apple and a couple of onions a day. It's freeing, knowing my carbon footprint is really just a toe print.