Earth Hour blackout highlights global warming

Madeleine Coorey, Yahoo News 29 Mar 08;

Australia's largest city was shrouded in darkness on Saturday night as it launched a worldwide campaign stretching from Sydney to San Francisco to highlight global warming.

Sydney was the first major metropolis to mark Saturday's 'Earth Hour', a self-imposed 60-minute black-out, with the lights on landmark buildings, corporate skyscrapers, businesses and homes switched off from 8:00 pm (0900 GMT).

From there the initiative, which aims to engage the community in combatting global warming, will see lights dimmed or turned off at 8:00 pm local time in Asian cities such as Bangkok and Manila, before spreading further to Europe and the Americas. Tel Aviv marked the event on March 27 for religious reasons.

'Earth Hour' founder Andy Ridley, who has said up to 30 million people could participate this year, said he was amazed at how far the initiative had spread since it was launched by environmental group WWF in Sydney a year ago.

"When we first talked about it, right at the beginning, our dream was to come up with something that made sense to a lot of people to do," he told AFP.

"And what seems to have happened is that it does seem to make sense to a lot of people to do it."

'Earth Hour' encourages governments, companies and homeowners to voluntarily switch off power to non-essential appliances for one hour to illustrate how, by working together, people can make a difference by using less energy, thereby producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

About 2.2 million people are estimated to have participated in the 2007 Sydney event which left the city's iconic harbourside Opera House and nearby Harbour Bridge bathed in moonlight as restaurant diners ate by candlelight and company logos on office buildings were dimmed.

'Earth Hour' Australia chief executive Greg Bourne said with 370 cities, towns and local governments across 35 countries taking part, he expected tens of millions of people to participate in 2008.

"I'm putting my neck on the line but my hope is that we top 100 million people," he said.

He said 'Earth Hour' carried "a message of hope and optimism... (that) we, the citizens of the world, are prepared to take action and we want to defeat climate change."

At 8:00 pm, Sydney's Harbour Bridge and Opera House dimmed as the floodlights were turned off, leaving only security lighting on. Elsewhere in the central business district, office lights were turned off.

Twenty-six cities around the world are officially signed on to turn off their lights on Saturday night, including Chicago and Atlanta in the US and the Irish capital Dublin, but hundreds more towns and local governments are expected to be involved in the 60-minute shutdown.

In Bangkok, the lights on some of the Thai capital's most famous landmarks, including the riverside Temple of the Dawn, the Rama 8 Cable Bridge across the Chao Phraya River and the main boulevard in the city's historic core will be turned off.

Sawaeng Tankam, 50, a motorcycle taxi driver, said authorities should expand the campaign to more areas.

"Why do they switch off the lights only in a few areas? That doesn't do enough to save energy. They should do this in every district in the city or even better, in every province," he said.

Some people in the Thai capital said they didn't know about the campaign.

"Switch off the lights? Where?" said Prapunpong Kaewyaem, 28, a vendor selling brass statues on Rajdamri Road, one of the thoroughfares set to turn off its street lamps.

Others voiced concern about the city plunging into darkness.

"I don't like it. This doesn't help anything. It is going to be dark," said Supoj Jaidee, a self-employed 30 year old.

Meanwhile in Manila, several major thoroughfares will go dark as street lights and billboards are switched off on the designated hour, Philippine Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

Cities 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.

Sydney goes dark for Earth Hour
Tanalee Smith, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Mar 08;

Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge went dark Saturday night as the world's first major city turned off its lights for this year's Earth Hour, a global campaign to raise awareness of climate change.

A lightning show was the brightest part of Sydney's skyline during Earth Hour, which began at 8 p.m. when the lights were turned off at the city's landmarks. Most businesses and homes were already dark as Sydney residents embraced their second annual Earth Hour with candlelight dinners, beach bonfires and even a green-powered outdoor movie.

"This provides an extraordinary symbol and an indication that we can be part of the solution" to global warming, Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told Sky News television, standing across the harbor from the dark silhouette of the Opera House.

Garrett said government offices and national monuments around the country participated in Earth Hour.

"We're not only talking the talk, we're walking the walk," he said as the hour ended. "Whatever your view is about the magnitude of the problem ... we can save money by using energy wisely and efficiently, and that gives us the added bonus of reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

During the one-hour event, Sydney was noticeably darker, though it was not a complete blackout. The business district was mostly dark; organizers said 250 of the 350 commercial buildings there had pledged to shut off their lights completely, and 94 of the top 100 companies on the Australian stock exchange were also participating.

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.

The effect of last year's Earth Hour was infectious. This year 26 major world cities and more than 300 other cities and towns have signed up to participate.

New Zealand and Fiji kicked off the event this year. In Christchurch, New Zealand, more than 100 businesses and thousands of homes were plunged into darkness, computers and televisions were switched off and dinners delayed for the hour from 8 to 9 p.m. Suva, Fiji, in the same time zone, also turned off its lights.

Auckland's Langham Hotel switched from electric lights to candles as it joined the effort to reduce the use of electricity, which when generated creates greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Australians had their own unique ways to mark the blackout as the clock struck 8 across the nation; one bar was offering free beers to customers who arrived with a black balloon to signify their carbon footprint; staff at beach bar donned solar-powered caps; a bed and breakfast offered candlelight cooking lessons; a children's hospital hosted a pajama party for its patients.

Following Australia, lights will go out in major Asian cities including Manila and Bangkok before moving to Europe and North America as the clock ticks on. One of the last major cities to participate will be San Francisco — home to the soon-to-be dimmed Golden Gate Bridge.

Organizers see the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy. While all lights in participating cities are unlikely to be cut, it is the symbolic darkening of monuments, businesses and individual homes they are most eagerly anticipating.

Even popular search engine Google put its support behind Earth Hour, with a completely black page and the words: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."

"Earth Hour is a call to action," Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore said at the official launch ceremony. "People have now responded and it's time to introduce some significant long-term changes."

Australians have embraced Earth Hour and other environmental initiatives. The nation of around 21 million people is ranked as the world's worst greenhouse gas emitter per capita, largely because of its heavy reliance on coal-fired power stations. New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made the environment one of his priorities, signing the Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming soon after taking office late last year.

Switch off, save planet message goes global
Michael Perry and Jeremy Lovell, Reuters 29 Mar 08;

SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - People switched off lights around the world on Saturday, dimming buildings, hotels, restaurants and bars to show concern at 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 westwards against the sun.

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 candle light 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."

In Norway, at the Kvitfjell ski resort that was host of the 1994 Winter Olympic downhill, some late-season parties were held by candle light as heavy snow fell outside.

BRIGHTON BLACKOUT

In Britain, 26 town and city councils signed up to switch off non-essential 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 and pavilion to mark the event.

The British arm of Internet search engine Google turned its home page black and added the message: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn."

Floodlights went out at landmarks in Budapest, including its castle, cathedral and parliament.

The movement will now cross the Atlantic to the United States and Canada,

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Chicago's Sears Tower and Soldier Field Stadium football ground, as well as the 553-metre (1,815 ft) CN Tower in Toronto were due to be plunged into darkness. The lights at Niagara Falls were also to go out.

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.

(Additional reporting by James Thornhill in Sydney, Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo, Ploy Chitsomboon in Bangkok and Alister Doyle in Oslo; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Cities switch off lights for Earth Hour
Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Mar 08;

From the Sydney Opera House to Rome's Colosseum to the Sears Tower's famous antennas in Chicago, 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 to North America 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.

Workers in Phoenix turned out the lights in all downtown city-owned buildings for one hour. Darkened restaurants glowed with candlelight in San Francisco while the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and other landmarks extinguished lights for an hour.

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.

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."

Tens of millions switch off worldwide for 'Earth Hour': organisers
Madeleine Coorey Yahoo News 30 Mar 08;

Tens of millions of people switched off lightbulbs this weekend as part of a global campaign to throw the spotlight on climate change, organisers of the Australian-led 'Earth Hour' initiative said.

From Sydney to Asia, Europe, Canada and the US, "many tens of millions" of people flicked the switch on Saturday night, plunging cities, towns and homes into darkness, chief of environmental group WWF-Australia Greg Bourne said.

The event, which was first held in Sydney last year, saw the lights dimmed in major cities at 8:00 pm local time, with skyscrapers, public monuments and private homes plunged into darkness.

Bourne said the response from around the world had been astounding.

While 26 cities are officially signed up for 'Earth Hour', Bourne said the campaign had already stretched well beyond that and that the intention was for the voluntary, 60-minute blackout to be even bigger in 2009.

"In pretty much every country in the world, someone has signed up. Whether it be one, two, three or 3,000 individuals," he told AFP.

"Basically every continent including Antarctica had some involvement and what I think will happen next year is that we will get deeper and deeper involvement in Asia, in Russia.

"We're pretty certain, that when we do it next year, China will become very much more involved," he added.

Earth Hour organisers asked governments, businesses and individuals to switch off the power for one hour on Saturday to save energy and thereby produce fewer greenhouse gases.

Bourne said the campaign was less about making a real reduction in energy usage, and more about increasing public awareness about energy efficiency.

He said indications were that the event had been a success in not only Sydney, where the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House faded into relative darkness, but around the world.

"We had 2.2 million last year; I reckon by the time we finally count it up, we will have about 100 million people involved around the world," he said.

Energy Australia, which supplies much of Sydney's electricity, said a drop of about 8.4 percent in energy usage had been recorded in the city during the hour, equivalent to 1.6 million light bulbs being switched off.

A national poll of some 3,400 people taken on Saturday and Sunday indicated that 58 percent of people living in major Australian cities had participated in the event by switching off lights or other appliances.

Meanwhile power consumption in Christchurch, the only New Zealand city participating in the global event, plummeted nearly 13 percent during the voluntary switch-off, figures released Sunday showed.

In Ireland, the initiative was led in the capital by the Dublin City Council, which turned off all non-street lighting on 13 of the 14 bridges in the city. It also turned off all the lights in City Hall and civic buildings.

Cities 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.