Earth Hour is happening Saturday night.

[Cetacea]

Sorry if this is a dupe. Please keep it kicked.

New York City's Empire State Building is scheduled to go dark for one hour Saturday night.

So are the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza and many other iconic structures.

The lights will be going out for Earth Hour, organized by the World Wildlife Fund to draw attention to global warming, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday local time around the world. That's when organizers of the event, which began in Sydney in 2007, want everyone to turn off non-essential lights.

About 2,800 cities in 83 countries — including 250 in the United States — had signed up, according to Dan Forman, a spokesman for World Wildlife Fund, an international conservation organization that boasts 1.2 million national members and close to 5 million globally.


article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-03-26-earthhour_N.htm

[tularetom]

1. Apparently fat boy limbaugh told his listeners to turn on every light in their homes

And then go out.

So if you want to know who in your neighborhood is a brainless droid that lets a piggy radio DJ tell him how to think just drive around and look for the houses with all the lights on.

[Zywiec]

7. Thanks for the tip

On Saturday night I'll drive around my neighborhood for an hour to see who is wasting energy.

Surely only the brainless droids would be doing something like having a light on in their house.

:crazy:

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Hey, last year, some DUers proposed lighting loads of candles for the hour

as if candles don't give off carbon dioxide.

[tularetom]

10. OK you can walk if you want to

But if you think its OK to turn on every light in your house and then go out then yes you are pretty close to a brainless droid.

[Cetacea]

13. It's ok. As long as we argue about everything we'll be fine.

How anyone can find anything negative about this is beyond my current drug-addled level of comprehension.

[KamaAina]

12. You could always ride a bike or something

:-)

[lunatica]

2. I can't help but think that this symbolic gesture is really meaningless

The claim is it will bring 'awareness' to the issue of climate change and get Congress's attention. Frankly I have to wonder how is Congress not aware? Over and over again we fool ourselves into thinking that if we could just get their attention they would stop living in their bubble. That's nuts. If they aren't aware then turning lights off while they're sitting at home watching tv in well lit houses isn't going to get their attention.

Example, Coca Cola is going to turn off all it's lighted signs around the world. Why not do something that has a real impact like spend some of their advertising dollars making ads about climate change? They could do it in every single country on the planet since they're in every country on the planet already. I'm sick of these 'symbolic' gestures which are meaningless while the planet convulses.

[Shoush]

3. The whole point is to RAISE awareness

I understand where you are coming from - if our elected officials don't care about climate change, they're clearly out of touch - but their ignorance is precisely why events like this black-out MUST be organized. Symbolic gestures may seem futile, but activists cannot be discouraged when their message falls on unsympathetic ears. We will not be silenced by the apathy of politicians and the power of corporate dollars. Continue to take action, no matter how small. That in and of itself has meaning.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Only if these big corporations turn off some decorative lights permanently will it have worked

If they do it once a year, it means squat. One hour a year is about 1/4000th of the time spent in darkness. They should never turn some of the lights back on again.

[Cetacea]

6. I was under the impression that individuals are encouraged as well.

If millions of people "power down" for one hour that is a huge amount of energy saved. That various landmark buildings are involved help give it a visual anchor.

I guess Rush wins this one too.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. People I know don't leave unneccesary lights on, right now

Apart from things like Christmas lights (and I'm not campaigning for turning those off, yet). No, 1 hour per year is still pretty small in the scheme of things, for individuals too (though they are less likely to leave lights on the entire night). Again, only if people realise they've been leaving on lights they don't need will this mean anything.

[Cetacea]

5. Welcome to DU.

:toast:

[Shoush]

11. Thanks!

:hi:

[rcrush]

14. No one will pay attention.

Or they will but they will eventually forget. People have the attention spans of puppies.

[jkshaw]

15. "People have the attention spans of puppies."

Unlike, say, us monkeys, right rcrush?