Cities turn off lights to send ‘save the planet’ message
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:57:00 03/31/2008
MANILA, Philippines—From the Sydney Opera House to Rome's Colosseum to the Sears Tower's famous antennas in Chicago and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, floodlit icons of civilization went dark for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.
Organizers of Earth Hour, a self-imposed 60-minute blackout from 8 p.m. on Saturday, hoped 100 million people turned off their nonessential lights and electronic appliances for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
In the Philippines, shopping malls and homes in scattered parts of Metro Manila and in some provinces were shrouded in darkness for an hour.
Thousands of households in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao—including those in areas where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) operates—switched off their solar-powered lights and television sets.
The Catholic-run Notre Dame Broadcasting Corp., which operates radio stations in Cotabato City, Koronadal and Kidapawan, went off the air for an hour.
More than 380 towns and cities and 3,500 businesses in 35 countries signed up for the campaign.
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 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 plan a similar event on March 28, 2009.
The environmental group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes 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."
Americans in it, too
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.
"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," said Richard Moss, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the climate change vice president for WWF.
Workers in Phoenix, Arizona, America's fifth-largest city, turned off the lights in all downtown city-owned buildings.
San Francisco concluded the display as 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.
Candlelit parties
And in Sydney, Australia—where an estimated 2.2 millions observed the blackout last year—the city's two architectural icons, the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, faded to black against a dramatic backdrop of a lightning storm.
Australians held candlelit beach parties, played poker by candlelight and floated candles down rivers.
Lights also went out at the famed Wat Arun Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand; 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.
Stars over Copenhagen
In Copenhagen, the Tivoli and the Royal Palace and the opera darkened for an hour, along with many streetlights.
"It's not often you can see the stars in a city," said Ida Thuesen, spokesperson for WWF Denmark.
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 ... Maybe next year," said Cathy Flanagan, an Earth Hour organizer.
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.
Google, too
Likewise, much of Europe—including France, Germany, Spain and European Union institutions—planned nothing to mark Earth Hour.
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.
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." It directed visitors to conserve energy when using computers
Shoppers and artists
In the Philippines, lights were turned off in parks, churches and some malls, hotels and fast-food chains in Cebu and Bacolod cities.
The Bacolod plaza, the San Sebastian Cathedral, the Negros Occidental Capitol and Lagoon Park were in total darkness.
SM City also turned off 50 to 70 percent of its lights in Cebu and Bacolod. Jolibee Foods Corp. and an advertisers' organization also switched off lights in Cebu.
Marriott Hotel offered candlelight dinner buffet at three outlets.
Some 12,000 households in the provinces of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Basilan and Zamboanga simultaneously turned off their solar-powered systems, according to Tetchie Cruz-Capellan of the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy.
In Baguio City, lights in portions of the SM City were turned off as soon as a siren sounded off to notify shoppers of the Earth Hour.
A family of artists switched off their lights and lit candles in their house-cum-gallery. The Arko Ni Apo Gallery was the only house in Barangay Pinsao to join the event. Reports from Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse; Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao; Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas; Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Cris Evert Lato, Cebu Daily News
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