Moving the Earth on Her Day!

When Earth Hour was celebrated on the 28th of last month, the city of Delhi saved 600 MW of electricity - the highest in any Metro city in India - just by switching off non-essential lights. In terms of Carbon emissions, it was as if 2.3 million small cars were taken off the road.  It was thus decided by the Chief Minister of Delhi that the Earth Hour will be celebrated every month in the city, and 22nd April - the Earth Day was appropriately chosen to be the day for this month.

Earth Day this year was also a landmark event for the city. Delhi faces several environmental issues most of which are actually the challenges of a rapidly evolving capital city of a country which is developing at an equal pace. Trees being cut almost every day, a polluted river only getting worse, the mobility crisis and the inequity, vehicular pollution and unplanned urban planning are all issues faced by citizens who wanted a solution to these by having a say in the decision making and access to basic information.

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Earth Day takes place this April 22nd.

As a green leader or entrepreneur, the day begs the question, what will you be doing?

In a mad public relations world that anchors on events as a tangible “touch point” in lieu of diving into the messier (and harder to track or control) world of ‘awareness’, Earth Day is one of many symbols (i.e. polar bears) we use when speaking to some of the starker and concrete practices of the planet’s ecological anxieties.

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Brisbane, Australia

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Saturday night was Earth Hour, where folks around the world switched off the lights from 8:30-9:30pm spent their powered-down time eating meals by candle light or doing a bit of stargazing. If you’re ready to do a bit more, you can participate in Cool People Care’s Earth Hour 2 Earth Day Challenge going on between now and April 22nd. There are all sorts of ways to participate!

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At 8:30 PM local time on Saturday night, people around the globe celebrated Earth Hour by turning out the lights at home and on such landmarks as Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium and Water Cube, the Empire State Building in New York City, Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, to name a few.

But as the hour-long public display of unity cascaded through the timezones, not everyone was buying-in and Fox News was determined to give facetime to anyone who wasn’t.

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For more in depth information about Earth Hour 2009, visit Wenona’s post from February or the Earth Hour US website.

What can you do when the lights are out?

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How much can just one hour of energy savings do for hour planet?

- 284 Canadian cities and municipalities participating

- 3249 cities and towns in 84 countries across all seven continents prepare to unite for Earth Hour

- 829 icons and landmarks around the world to switch off lights in support of climate change action

It might seem like an insignificant amount of time in the large scheme of things but the impact on the planet is potentially huge. Earth hour is an opportunity for the citizens of the world to send a clear message that they want to take action on climate change.

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“It’s an immensely destructive gesture,” Rosett said. “The U.N. has been busy manipulating and politicizing the science on this for years…. The whole climate obsession has the potential to make Oil for Food look like a drop in the ocean.”

Pardon me if I hadn’t noticed the U.N. manipulating and politicizing the science of climate change, I was too busy watching that same phenomenon take place at the White House for eight years.

Lomborg argues that Earth Hour emits more carbon dioxide

Another nay-sayer that was given a chance to spout his rhetoric was the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who argued that the event could actually increase emissions.

“When asked to extinguish electricity, people turn to candlelight,” Lomborg wrote in an op-ed in The Australian.

“Candles seem natural, but are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light globes, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights. If you use one candle for each extinguished globe, you’re essentially not cutting CO2 at all, and with two candles you’ll emit more CO2,” wrote Lomborg.

But what if you don’t light one candle for each “extinguished globe,” as Lomborg assumes. Personally, I turned off four lights and lit two candles. But for all of those lights that were shut off on bridges, public buildings, skyscrapers, etc., candles were not lit at the 1:1 or 2:1 ratio that Lomborg suggests. The number would probably be closer to 0:1.

I understand some of the critiques that Earth Hour might be a little soft on action once 9:30 local time rolls around. However, movement politics are not neat and tidy. Generating the kind of public support needed to address climate change requires lots of public (political) efforts. That is the way collective action problems are often solved.

If you don’t want to turn out your lights for one hour, once a year, that is fine, no one is going to make you. But for Fox News to try and label Earth Hour as a UN-driven ploy to push an agenda and redistribute wealth, is a strategy straight from the failed Karl Rove playbook. A playbook that has only served to increase the level of ideological divisiveness in American politics.

Images: NASA; Earth Hour

Powering Down

Earth Hour is about turning off the lights for one hour. It may seem like just a little thing, but when everyone does it at once, the results are impressive. Look at a few statistics from 2008’s Earth Hour.

• Chicago kept 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
• In Toronto, there was an 8.7% reduction in energy.
• A 10.1% energy drop occurred in energy usage.

Those numbers can be even more impressive if we do more than just turn off the lights. Powering down everything non-essential in your home can reduce your energy usage even further.

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Why? At 8:30pm on that date, the lights go out.

It may sound like the beginning of a horror movie (or the rolling “brownouts” we suffered a few years ago here in LA) but this time it’s on purpose. This time, it’s a blackout with a message (read in deep, movie announcer voice).

Earth Hour, a worldwide effort to bring attention to the dangers of climate change, is inspiring people to vote for progress with their light switches and remotes by turning of all nonessential lights and appliances in their houses and businesses for an hour.

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Earth Day is coming up next month on April 22nd, what better way to get warmed up for Earth Day, then by participating in Earth Hour?  Earth Hour 2009 is scheduled for March 28, 2009 from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time, and participants are encouraged to turn off all their lights for one hour.  Over 74 countries and states have already publicly declared their support for Earth Hour, and reports that the numbers continue to grow daily.

Earthhour.org has a petition for participants to sign as well local information regarding the event in your area.  The Earth Hour website also has news and background information of the origins of this demonstration of collective environmental will.

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu is getting behind the symbolic call for global action against climate change that is Earth Hour. From 8:30-9:30 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, March 28, major swaths of urbanized Earth will go dark in the name of unity.

All anyone has to do is sit, relax, socialize. Maybe in the dark, maybe by candle light. Whatever. It’s a World Wildlife Fund-led global party that may just offer city-dwellers the stars above, a rarely viewable pleasure for sure.

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This year, over 64 countries and territories are participating. With a projected one billion participants in over 1000 cities this year, Earth Hour 2009 is sending a message that people are ready to pull together and fight global warming. According to their website, “Earth Hour aims to demonstrate unprecedented solidarity and provide a visual mandate for action on climate change.”

Check out their moving video promoting this year’s event:

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Did you read all about the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour coming up on March 29th and get excited about what you can do to make a difference? Here are three simple things you can start with to take action:

1. Sign up for Earth Hour 2009

You can take action by signing up to participate in Earth Hour.

2. Spread the word

The most powerful tool you have is your voice. Tell your friends, neighbors, schoolmates and coworkers, about Earth Hour. Email the story and encourage others to sign up and further spread the good word. Run your own Earth Hour using this tool.

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On March 28, 2009, at 8:30 pm, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) wants you to turn off your lights for Earth Hour and join a billion other people across the Earth in showing our world leaders that you want decisive action on global warming.

“When leaders gather in Copenhagen in December 2009 to negotiate a new deal on climate they must feel that the eyes of the world are upon them. Earth Hour provides an opportunity for the public to send a powerful signal that they are watching and expect action.” -Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International

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“It’s an immensely destructive gesture,” Rosett said. “The U.N. has been busy manipulating and politicizing the science on this for years…. The whole climate obsession has the potential to make Oil for Food look like a drop in the ocean.”

Pardon me if I hadn’t noticed the U.N. manipulating and politicizing the science of climate change, I was too busy watching that same phenomenon take place at the White House for eight years.

Lomborg argues that Earth Hour emits more carbon dioxide

Another nay-sayer that was given a chance to spout his rhetoric was the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who argued that the event could actually increase emissions.

“When asked to extinguish electricity, people turn to candlelight,” Lomborg wrote in an op-ed in The Australian.

“Candles seem natural, but are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light globes, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights. If you use one candle for each extinguished globe, you’re essentially not cutting CO2 at all, and with two candles you’ll emit more CO2,” wrote Lomborg.

But what if you don’t light one candle for each “extinguished globe,” as Lomborg assumes. Personally, I turned off four lights and lit two candles. But for all of those lights that were shut off on bridges, public buildings, skyscrapers, etc., candles were not lit at the 1:1 or 2:1 ratio that Lomborg suggests. The number would probably be closer to 0:1.

I understand some of the critiques that Earth Hour might be a little soft on action once 9:30 local time rolls around. However, movement politics are not neat and tidy. Generating the kind of public support needed to address climate change requires lots of public (political) efforts. That is the way collective action problems are often solved.

If you don’t want to turn out your lights for one hour, once a year, that is fine, no one is going to make you. But for Fox News to try and label Earth Hour as a UN-driven ploy to push an agenda and redistribute wealth, is a strategy straight from the failed Karl Rove playbook. A playbook that has only served to increase the level of ideological divisiveness in American politics.

Images: NASA; Earth Hour

Earth Hour begins at 8 PM on March 29. For Kamchatka and the Kiribati Islands, that’s in just under 14 hours from now.

As the clock strikes eight in the evening, people across your time zone will be turning off their lights. It’s activism en mass. The purpose: to inspire people to take action on climate change and to demonstrate that massive and immediate action is possible.

So this Saturday night, do something that you will remember the next morning. Join the global movement, Earth Hour, and for just 60 minutes starting at 8 PM keep your lights and electricity turned off.

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Candlelit services are nothing new for religious organizations. So when businesses, governments, and individuals turn off their lights Saturday at 8 p.m. local time, churches, synagogues, and mosques will be holding special gatherings. This global event is the second annual Earth Hour, the creation of the World Wildlife Fund to inspire people to take action on climate change.

In Toronto, The Church of the Holy Trinity in conjunction with KAIROS Ecumenical Justice Initiatives will be hosting an event called Songs, Stories, and Ritual for the Healing of the Earth with singing, poetry, and drumming.

In Atlanta, Georgia Interfaith Power and Light is persuading its 120 Christian, Jewish and Buddhist congregations to power down on March 29. The group is part of a national campaign led by Rev. Sally Bingham, that assists congregations in going green by doing free energy audits and offering teaching resources on the environment as a faith issue.

In Sydney, St. Mark’s Anglican Church has been transitioning into an “eco-church” since Earth Hour 2007.

Photo credit: Flickr

“It’s an immensely destructive gesture,” Rosett said. “The U.N. has been busy manipulating and politicizing the science on this for years…. The whole climate obsession has the potential to make Oil for Food look like a drop in the ocean.”

Pardon me if I hadn’t noticed the U.N. manipulating and politicizing the science of climate change, I was too busy watching that same phenomenon take place at the White House for eight years.

Lomborg argues that Earth Hour emits more carbon dioxide

Another nay-sayer that was given a chance to spout his rhetoric was the Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who argued that the event could actually increase emissions.

“When asked to extinguish electricity, people turn to candlelight,” Lomborg wrote in an op-ed in The Australian.

“Candles seem natural, but are almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light globes, and more than 300 times less efficient than fluorescent lights. If you use one candle for each extinguished globe, you’re essentially not cutting CO2 at all, and with two candles you’ll emit more CO2,” wrote Lomborg.

But what if you don’t light one candle for each “extinguished globe,” as Lomborg assumes. Personally, I turned off four lights and lit two candles. But for all of those lights that were shut off on bridges, public buildings, skyscrapers, etc., candles were not lit at the 1:1 or 2:1 ratio that Lomborg suggests. The number would probably be closer to 0:1.

I understand some of the critiques that Earth Hour might be a little soft on action once 9:30 local time rolls around. However, movement politics are not neat and tidy. Generating the kind of public support needed to address climate change requires lots of public (political) efforts. That is the way collective action problems are often solved.

If you don’t want to turn out your lights for one hour, once a year, that is fine, no one is going to make you. But for Fox News to try and label Earth Hour as a UN-driven ploy to push an agenda and redistribute wealth, is a strategy straight from the failed Karl Rove playbook. A playbook that has only served to increase the level of ideological divisiveness in American politics.

Images: NASA; Earth Hour