Earth Hour '08 - Will It Matter?

[Cherub]

Earth Hour '08: Will It Matter?

Thursday, Mar. 27, 2008
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The average American produces about 20 tons of the major greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) every year. That might sound like a lot — and Americans do have among the biggest carbon footprints in the world — but the entire world emits around 27 billion tons of CO2 each year, through transportation, electricity use, deforestation. Look at those numbers for a moment, and you'll realize there's very little that any of us can do on an individual level to stop climate change. Live like a monk, take away your 20 tons — stop breathing if you'd like — and you'll barely scratch the surface.
Podcast

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One Man's Earth Hour Dream (http://sonibyte.com/audio/6384.final)

It only lasts an hour Saturday evening in cities around the world, but Carter Roberts thinks that by switching off the lights, and raising global awareness, Earth Hour can start to address the crisis that is global warming
Download (http://sonibyte.com/audio/6384.final) | Subscribe at iTunes (http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F%252Fax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewPodcast%253Fid%253D127041574%2526s%253D143441)

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It's numbers like those that can make Earth Hour so easy to criticize. Starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Christchurch, New Zealand, citizens from around the world will shut off their lights for an hour, to draw attention to the connection between energy use and climate change. From New Zealand, the event will move westward with the sun to Australia, Manila, Dubai, Dublin, New York, Chicago and finally end in San Francisco, where both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge will go dark for an hour. Earth Hour is being sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and its head Carter Roberts says the global event "will make a statement about our commitment to solve the climate change problem and symbolize the commitment that people will make throughout the rest of the year." (Hear Roberts talk about Earth Hour on this week's Greencast.)
Earth Hour won't suffer for a lack of gimmicks. Servers wearing glow-in-the-dark necklaces will sell eco-tinis at bars and restaurants in Phoenix. A local yoga house in Michigan will offer sessions by lamplight, and the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago will have check-in by candlelight. Watching the lights wink off in major metropolitan areas might look impressive, but it's worth asking: What's the point? As Roberts himself notes, the energy saved by turning off your lights for an hour "won't make an enormous difference." So, if it won't cut carbon emissions, why bother then with Earth Hour, or Earth Day or Earth Live, last year's daylong concert for the environment?
Because climate change is essentially a political problem, and the language of politics is symbolism. Just because an act is symbolic doesn't mean it empty. The only way to truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to take the pressure off global warming, is an international regime that puts a cap and a price on climate pollution. And the only way that will happen is if politicians around the world become convinced that climate change is an issue that matters to people, one that will make them change the way they live, buy — and vote. "Unlike most of the issues that we grapple with, climate change is global," says Roberts. "The pressure is on us to do the right thing." If shutting off the lights for an hour on Saturday night and doing yoga in the dark makes that political support, well, visible, then Earth Hour will have been worth it.
The environmental movement is reaching a delicate moment. We're well past the point where going green is novel, where just doing your bit to save the Earth deserves endless praise. We've become inured to the existence of global warming, to its inconvenient truth, yet we sense that the solutions we've been given — change a light bulb, change your life — fall far short of the scale of the problem. We risk green fatigue because, after all, what can we do about it? But this is the moment when we need to keep pushing in every way we can. The technologies that will help us decarbonize energy are developing, but they need a push — and that will only happen if we keep climate change near the top of our political agenda. Earth Hour, Earth Day, Earth Year — we'll need it all.

[Cherub]

'Earth Hour' to plunge millions into darkness

By Madeleine Coorey Posted Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:57pm PDT
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080328/capt.cps.mtc91.280308065624.photo00.photo.default-512x512.jpg
NASA image of planet Earth in July 2007. Twenty-six cities around the world are set to turn off the lights at 0900 GMT in an effort to raise awareness about global warming.(AFP/NASA/File)


SYDNEY (AFP) - Twenty-six major cities around the world are expected to turn off the lights on major landmarks, plunging millions of people into darkness to raise awareness about global warming, organisers said.

'Earth Hour' founder Andy Ridley said 371 cities, towns or local governments from Australia to Canada and even Fiji had signed up for the 60-minute shutdown at 0900 GMT on March 29.
"There are definitely 26 (cities) that we think, if it all goes to plan, we are going to see a major event of lights going off," he told AFP.

Cities officially signed on include Chicago and San Francisco, Dublin, Manila, Bangkok, Copenhagen and Toronto, all of which will switch off lights on major landmarks and encourage businesses and homeowners to follow suit.

Ridley said it was also likely that other major European cities such as Rome and London, and the South Korean capital Seoul, although not officially taking part, would turn off lights on some attractions or landmarks.

The initiative began in Sydney last year and has become a global event, sweeping across 35 countries this year.

From 8:00 pm local time in Sydney, the energy-saving campaign will see harbourside icons such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House bathed only in moonlight, restaurant diners eat by candlelight and city skyscrapers turn off their neon signs.

Organisers hope the initiative will encourage people to be more aware of their energy usage, knowing that producing electricity pollutes the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels which are contributing to global warming.

But they are also aware that it will be just a small step in solving the problem of rising temperatures around the globe.

"Switching the lights off for an hour is not going to make a dent in global emissions," organiser Charles Stevens, of the environmental group WWF, told AFP.

"But what it does do is it is a great catalyst for much bigger changes. It engages people in the processes of becoming more energy efficient."

Stevens said the initiative encouraged businesses to be more careful with their electricity use while at the same time sending "a fairly powerful message to governments that people are demanding action."

Some 2.2 million people participated in last year's 'Earth Hour' in Sydney, cutting the central business district's energy usage by more than 10 percent.

While no cities from China or India are involved this year, Stevens said it was hoped that the movement would expand in 2009, which he said would be a particularly significant year given that it is the deadline for United Nations talks to determine future action on climate change after the Kyoto Protocol.

Ridley, who began 'Earth Hour' last year while working with WWF Australia, said the initiative was about individuals and global companies joining together to own a shared problem -- climate change.

"Governments and businesses are joining individuals, religious groups, schools and communities in this terrific movement that's all about making a change for the better," he said.
"It's staggering to see so much support from across the globe in just our second year and we're hoping that this will continue to grow year after year."

Cities officially involved in 'Earth Hour' include Aalborg, Aarhus, Adelaide, Atlanta, Bangkok, Brisbane, Canberra, Chicago, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Darwin, Dublin, Hobart, Manila, Melbourne, Montreal, Odense, Ottawa, Perth, Phoenix, San Francisco, Suva, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Vancouver.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.

[Cherub]

Europe joins 'lights out' for Earth Hour

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 24 minutes ago

DUBLIN, Ireland - From Rome's Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House, floodlit icons of civilization went dark Saturday for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

The environmental group WWF urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were.
The campaign began last year in Australia, and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe in cadence with the setting of the sun. Several U.S. cities also planned symbolic blackouts or dimmings of monuments, including at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," said Andy Ridley, executive director of Earth Hour. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody."
Earth Hour officials hoped 100 million people would turn off their nonessential lights and electronic goods for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse gases that fuel climate change.
In Sydney, where an estimated 2.2 million observed the blackout last year, officials said it appeared at least as popular this time, involving untold candlelight dinners and beach-bonfire parties. The city's two architectural icons, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, faded to black.
Last year's shutdown produced an estimated cut of 10.2 percent in Australia's carbon emissions for that hour.
More than two dozen cities and 300 towns across the globe planned their own smaller, largely symbolic switch-offs.
Lights went out at the famed Wat Arun Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand; shopping and cultural centers in Manila, Philippines; several castles in Sweden and Denmark; the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary; a string of landmarks in Warsaw, Poland; and both London City Hall and Canterbury Cathedral in England.
Greece, an hour ahead of most of Europe, was the first on the continent to mark Earth Hour. On the isle of Aegina, near Athens, much of its population marched by candlelight to the port. Parts of Athens itself, including the floodlit city hall, also turned to black.
In Ireland, where environmentalists are part of the coalition government, lights-out orders went out for scores of government buildings, bridges and monuments in more than a dozen cities and towns.
Activists gathered outside one of Dublin's most impressive floodlit buildings, the riverfront Custom House, and cheered as the lights went out. The building houses the Environment Department, run by a Green Party minister.
But next door, the international banks and brokerages of Dublin's financial district blazed away with light, illuminating floor after empty floor of desks and idling computers.
"The banks should have embraced this wholeheartedly and they didn't. But it's a start. Maybe next year," said Cathy Flanagan, an Earth Hour organizer in Dublin.
Ireland's more than 7,000 pubs elected not to take part — in part because of the risk that Saturday night revelers could end up smashing glasses, falling down stairs, or setting themselves on fire with candles.
Likewise, much of Europe — including France, Germany, Spain and European Union institutions — planned nothing to mark Earth Hour.
Internet search engine Google lent its support to Earth Hour by blackening its normally white home page and challenging visitors: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."

[Cherub]

"Earth Hour" goes global

By Jeremy Lovell and Eric Auchard 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

LONDON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - People switched off lights around the world on Saturday, dimming buildings, hotels, restaurants and bars to show concern with global warming.

Up to 30 million people were expected to have switched off their lights for 60 minutes by the time "Earth Hour" -- which started in Suva in Fiji and Christchurch in New Zealand -- has 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 alone.
"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 switched off and 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 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 (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/nm/ts_nm/storytext/climate_lights_dc/26901149/SIG=10jjq398b/*http://Google.com). A message on the site read: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."
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 553-metre (1,815 ft) CN Tower in Toronto and the surrounding skyline were plunged into temporary darkness.
In Toronto's trendy Queen West neighborhood, many restaurants offered candlelight dining. The golden arches at a corner McDonalds were dark, though the fast-food restaurant itself was brightly lit.
Closer to downtown, news helicopters swooped low over city streets, where banks had switched off the neon signs atop their skyscrapers. "I would have expected fewer helicopters during earth hour," said one disgruntled spectator.
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Chicago's Sears Tower and Soldier Field football stadium were slated to take part in the closing hours of Saturday's global event.
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.

[Cherub]

Cities go dark to mark Earth Hour
Story Highlights
NEW: Chicago and other U.S. cities begin to mark Earth Hour
Building and landmarks worldwide turning off lights for this year's Earth Hour
This year, 26 major world cities, 300-plus other communities have signed up
Even Google has displayed a completely black Web page
Next Article in World » (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/03/29/tanzania.mine.ap/index.html?iref=nextin)http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/2.0/global/1x1pixel.gif
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CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- From Rome's Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House to the Sears Tower's famous antennas in Chicago, floodlit icons of civilization have gone dark for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the waste of electricity and the threat of climate change.
Lights on more than 200 downtown buildings were dimmed Saturday night in Chicago.
The environmental group WWF has urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes Saturday starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were.
The campaign began last year in Australia and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe in cadence with the setting of the sun.
"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," said Andy Ridley, executive director of Earth Hour. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody."
Earth Hour officials hoped 100 million people would turn off their nonessential lights and electronic goods for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse gases that fuel climate change.
In Chicago, lights on more than 200 downtown buildings were dimmed Saturday night, including the stripe of white light around the top of the John Hancock Center. The red-and-white marquee outside Wrigley Field also went dark.
"There's a widespread belief that somehow people in the United States don't understand that this is a problem that we're lazy and wedded to our lifestyles. [Earth Hour] demonstrates that that is wrong," Richard Moss, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the climate change vice president for WWF, said in Chicago on Saturday. http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/tabs/video.gif Watch the WWF chief discuss the program » (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/lights.out.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo)
New Zealand and Fiji were first out of the starting blocks this year. And in Sydney, Australia -- where an estimated 2.2 million observed the blackout last year -- the city's two architectural icons, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, faded to black against a dramatic backdrop of a lightning storm.
Don't Miss
Web site: Eco Solutions (http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/eco.solutions/)Lights also went out at the famed Wat Arun Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand; shopping and cultural centers in Manila, Philippines; several castles in Sweden and Denmark; the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary; a string of landmarks in Warsaw, Poland; and both London City Hall and Canterbury Cathedral in England.
Greece, an hour ahead of most of Europe, was the first on the continent to mark Earth Hour. On the isle of Aegina, near Athens, much of its population marched by candlelight to the port. Parts of Athens itself, including the floodlit city hall, also turned to black.
In Ireland, where environmentalists are part of the coalition government, lights-out orders went out for scores of government buildings, bridges and monuments in more than a dozen cities and towns.
But the international banks and brokerages of Dublin's financial district blazed away with light, illuminating floor after empty floor of desks and idling computers.
"The banks should have embraced this wholeheartedly and they didn't. But it's a start. Maybe next year," said Cathy Flanagan, an Earth Hour organizer in Dublin.
Ireland's more than 7,000 pubs elected not to take part, in part because of the risk that Saturday night revelers could end up smashing glasses, falling down stairs or setting themselves on fire with candles.
Likewise, much of Europe -- including France, Germany, Spain and European Union institutions -- planned nothing to mark Earth Hour.
Internet search engine Google lent its support to Earth Hour by blackening its normally white home page and challenging visitors: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."
Twenty-three major cities worldwide, along with 300 smaller cities, took part in Earth Hour, a campaign by environmental group WWF to highlight the need to conserve energy and fight global warming.
In Sydney, a lightning storm was the brightest part of the skyline when the lights were turned off at the city's landmarks. Most businesses and homes were already dark as residents embraced their second annual Earth Hour with candlelight dinners, beach bonfires and even a green-powered outdoor movie. http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/tabs/video.gif Watch the lights go out in Sydney for Earth Hour. » (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/lights.out.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo)
The number of participants was not immediately available, but organizers were hoping to beat last year's debut, when 2.2 million people and more than 2,000 businesses shut off lights and appliances, resulting in a 10.2 percent reduction in carbon emissions during that hour.
"I'm putting my neck on the line, but my hope is that we top 100 million people," Earth Hour Australia chief executive Greg Bourne said.
WWF Thailand said the lights out campaign in Bangkok saved 73.34 megawatts of electricity, which would have produced 45.8 tons of carbon dioxide.
In Manila, the grounds of the seaside Cultural Center of the Philippines went dark after four city mayors ceremonially switched off the lights. Shopping malls turned off street lamps around the metropolis.
After Asia, lights were expected to go out in major European and North American cites as the clock ticks on. One of the last to participate will be San Francisco, California, home to the soon-to-be dimmed Golden Gate Bridge.



Organizers see the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Global_Climate_Change).



"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley said. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody."