An interesting article I found on the web..
__________________________________________
Cities to turn out the lights for climate change: WWF
Yahoo News 13 Dec 07;
Major cities around the world will plunge into darkness for an hour in March 2008 to mark their commitment to battling climate change, conservation group WWF said Friday.
Toronto, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and Chicago and many other cities in Asia, Europe and North America will switch off the lights on March 29 for the so-called Earth Hour, the group announced.
James Leape, head of WWF International, hailed the "unique global event" as a demonstration of the world's commitment to fighting global warming, which climate scientists say is one of the planet's gravest long-term problems.
"During Earth Hour, governments, businesses, community leaders and individuals will be turning out their lights and switching on their support for actions that can help make a difference in the most significant challenge facing the world today," Leape said in a statement.
The announcement came as the world's environment ministers and senior delegates thrashed out the details on a new climate change road map in Bali, Indonesia as talks entered 11th-hour haggles with key issues unresolved.
"While we expect the government leaders here in Bali to make courageous decisions that are needed to save our planet, Earth Hour reminds us that each of us can be part of the solution to climate change," Leape said.
Environmental delegates from more than 180 countries have until the end of Friday to agree a framework for tackling global warming past 2012, when pledges under the climate change-tackling treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, expire.
This will be the second Earth Hour organised by WWF, after Sydney plunged into the dark in March this year, with more than 2.2-million people taking part. Sydney's landmark Opera House and Harbour Bridge were among the buildings dimming the lights.
The idea behind the initiative is to raise awareness of climate change and promote energy efficiency.
"Now it is time to take Earth Hour to the rest of the world," said Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
Earth Hour
-
zong
- Administrator
- Posts: 621
- Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2003 9:41 pm
- Favourite scope: 1x7 binoculars (my eyes)
- Location: Toa Payoh
- Contact:
I thought Earth Hour is something like a set day of a year? I could be wrong, though, sorry for ignoranceVinSnr wrote:Please remind them to select a day which is not a full moon.
Well, we could have a person "infiltrate" the PUB though.. and shut down its supply for a night. Just joking though.
Stargazing ... is an excuse to stay up past bedtime that never fails!
-
Airconvent
- Super Moderator
- Posts: 5792
- Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:49 pm
- Location: United Federation of the Planets
Actually our main problem are clouds so switching off all the lights will not have that much of an impact although it will help bring out the milky way.
Also, think of all the insurance claims and law suits from accidents due to no lighting!
Also, think of all the insurance claims and law suits from accidents due to no lighting!
The Boldly Go Where No Meade Has Gone Before
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
Earth Hour: City plays key role in Earth Hour crusade
Peter Gorrie, The Toronto Star 19 Jan 08;
At least three more – Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai – are likely to participate.
By simply turning out the lights for one hour on the same day at the same time, citizens and companies around the world are uniting to send a powerful message to sluggish governments
Seven countries, 17 cities (so far) and a growing movement that truly begins at home.
It might seem an inconsequential thing to turn out the lights in your house for an hour on a Saturday night.
With vast clouds of greenhouse gases spewing from vehicles, factories and generating stations around the world, it's like an ant trying to halt the juggernaut of destructive climate change.
But Earth Hour is all about the power of one, multiplied many, many times.
If you, your neighbours and many others take the little step between 8 and 9 p.m. on March 29, not only will the city's electricity consumption drop for 60 minutes, you'll be making a major statement to sluggish governments and industry, and to one another.
"Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action," says the World Wildlife Fund, a main organizer of what, in its second year, has become a global event.
"It's a potent, very visible symbol of concern and expectation for action," says Julia Langer, global threats director at WWF- Canada.
"It's a celebration of what's been done so far and ratcheting up to the next level of achievement."
Building public awareness of energy use is key to moving the province toward "the conservation culture that the premier is talking about," says Toronto Hydro spokesperson Blair Peberdy.
The lights-out campaign was launched last year in Sydney, Australia. Organizers say 1,950 businesses and government departments, and 60,000 households, participated. For 60 minutes, much of the city's skyline went dark and demand for electricity fell 10.2 per cent. That reduction was double the original target.
Since most of Australia's electricity is generated by burning coal, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions was equivalent to taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour, organizers say.
This year, Earth Hour will be an international demonstration of the power of individuals to create change.
Sydney is in again, and the event, so far, has expanded within Australia to include Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Gold Coast and Melbourne, and beyond the island continent to Toronto; Chicago; Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel; Manila, Philippines; Suva, Fiji; Christchurch, New Zealand; and four Danish cities – Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg. At least three more – Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai – are likely to participate. Others are welcome.
A similar action, Lights Out America, will be held in additional U.S. locations.
Toronto's Earth Hour is co-sponsored by the Star, WWF-Canada, the City of Toronto and Virgin Mobile, with co-operation from Toronto Hydro and many businesses.
During the two months leading up to Earth Hour, the newspaper will publish daily green tips. It has launched a blog – thestar.com/blogs – aimed at helping readers cut their consumption of energy and resources of all kinds.
The Star is also taking the campaign to heart by undertaking its own "green" plan at the Vaughan Press Centre and offices at One Yonge St.
And this week, WWF-Canada begins a companion campaign called "The Good Life," intended to help people take positive action on climate change while living happier, healthier lives in harmony with the environment.
It sets up a national system for tracking how we reduce our greenhouse emissions. You'll find details on the group's website: www.wwf.ca.
"It will prove the point that people are taking action and build the expectation for others to do their part as well," Langer says.
For Earth Hour, each city is setting its own goals for reduced electricity demand.
Toronto's is 5 per cent. Although that doesn't sound like much, it would be a substantial achievement and require mass participation by residents and businesses, according to Toronto Hydro.
On the other hand, there's no reason why we can't eclipse what Sydney accomplished last year.
Here's what's involved:
Looked at in the simplest way, lighting accounts for about 15 per cent of the total electricity demand on a typical late-March weekend evening.
During the past three years, the load has amounted to 3,345 megawatts during the equivalent to this year's Earth Hour period, Toronto Hydro says. So, one-third of all the lights in Toronto would have to go dark to reach the goal.
The real situation, though, is more complex.
On weekdays, residential demand accounts for only 20 per cent of the total load, but on a March Saturday night, with many businesses and factories closed, it rises to 30 per cent.
The city has about 600,000 dwellings. Assuming half are occupied on a Saturday night, and each is lit by 10 100-watt bulbs, if everyone at home turned off all their lights, demand would fall by 300 megawatts.
Just like that, we'd cut overall demand by nearly 9 per cent.
The effort can go beyond lights: You can eliminate other power drains, too, including the "phantom" or "vampire" load consumed by TVs, stereos, computers, cellphone chargers and any other gear that appears to be turned off but is eating up watts on standby.
Just pull the plug or switch the power bar to "off." Even better, shut down your gizmos and do something fun that doesn't require electricity at all. Your choice.
With all those options, we'd double the target just by cutting residential demand. But obviously, only with huge participation.
Some of the non-residential half of the load can't, or won't, be cut.
For safety reasons some lights, including traffic signals and 160,000 street lamps, must remain on. Condo and apartment hallways have to be illuminated. Subways and streetcars will keep trundling along.
And water treatment plants – among the city's main power consumers – can't be shut down.
The Leafs are scheduled to play the Montreal Canadiens that evening, and the Air Canada Centre isn't going to be darkened with 20,000 fans and players inside.
The ACC draws up to 10 megawatts when the rink and TV lights are on full blast.
Even so, the business side has plenty of scope to cut its demand, Hydro officials say.
For one thing, the downtown towers, which draw up to 10 to 15 megawatts each, don't need to be as brightly lit as they now are on Saturday nights.
Stores could tone down their outdoor signs; restaurants could serve meals by candlelight.
"The office towers are darker after business hours than they used to be, but there's a lot of room for improvement," Peberdy says.
Toronto's Earth Hour greenhouse gas savings won't be as dramatic as in Sydney because most of our electricity comes from hydro and nuclear stations, which – as long as they're generating power – are emissions-free.
In fact, it's difficult to say what the drop might be.
Over the past two years, Ontario's remaining coal plants have generated only about 18 per cent of the power produced province-wide between 8 and 9 p.m. on March 29.
Separate figures aren't available for Toronto. Assume we match the provincial result, though. Coal plants tend to be shut down first when power demand falls, because nuclear and hydro stations produce the cheapest power and nuclear plants are best left humming along at top speed.
So, we can assume much of the reduction will be at the coal-fuelled plants, but not all.
What will the city look like?
"All of the downtown better go dark," Langer says.
For certain, it won't be like the big blackout of 2003, when, for a time, almost every light was out and, for once, city dwellers could see stars shining brightly in the night sky.
It also won't be a surprise, so there's no need to fear stumbling around in the dark, or having a fridge full of food go bad.
But if enough condo dwellers and businesses participate, much of the skyline will be reduced to a dim silhouette. And if the rest of us join in, neighbourhoods will be dark and peaceful.
Again, Earth Hour is not about solving climate change: It's about people expressing concern and an intention to do something about it.
"Turning out the lights is a symbol of what we can do, and what we want to do," Langer says.
Peter Gorrie, The Toronto Star 19 Jan 08;
At least three more – Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai – are likely to participate.
By simply turning out the lights for one hour on the same day at the same time, citizens and companies around the world are uniting to send a powerful message to sluggish governments
Seven countries, 17 cities (so far) and a growing movement that truly begins at home.
It might seem an inconsequential thing to turn out the lights in your house for an hour on a Saturday night.
With vast clouds of greenhouse gases spewing from vehicles, factories and generating stations around the world, it's like an ant trying to halt the juggernaut of destructive climate change.
But Earth Hour is all about the power of one, multiplied many, many times.
If you, your neighbours and many others take the little step between 8 and 9 p.m. on March 29, not only will the city's electricity consumption drop for 60 minutes, you'll be making a major statement to sluggish governments and industry, and to one another.
"Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action," says the World Wildlife Fund, a main organizer of what, in its second year, has become a global event.
"It's a potent, very visible symbol of concern and expectation for action," says Julia Langer, global threats director at WWF- Canada.
"It's a celebration of what's been done so far and ratcheting up to the next level of achievement."
Building public awareness of energy use is key to moving the province toward "the conservation culture that the premier is talking about," says Toronto Hydro spokesperson Blair Peberdy.
The lights-out campaign was launched last year in Sydney, Australia. Organizers say 1,950 businesses and government departments, and 60,000 households, participated. For 60 minutes, much of the city's skyline went dark and demand for electricity fell 10.2 per cent. That reduction was double the original target.
Since most of Australia's electricity is generated by burning coal, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions was equivalent to taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour, organizers say.
This year, Earth Hour will be an international demonstration of the power of individuals to create change.
Sydney is in again, and the event, so far, has expanded within Australia to include Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Gold Coast and Melbourne, and beyond the island continent to Toronto; Chicago; Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel; Manila, Philippines; Suva, Fiji; Christchurch, New Zealand; and four Danish cities – Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg. At least three more – Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai – are likely to participate. Others are welcome.
A similar action, Lights Out America, will be held in additional U.S. locations.
Toronto's Earth Hour is co-sponsored by the Star, WWF-Canada, the City of Toronto and Virgin Mobile, with co-operation from Toronto Hydro and many businesses.
During the two months leading up to Earth Hour, the newspaper will publish daily green tips. It has launched a blog – thestar.com/blogs – aimed at helping readers cut their consumption of energy and resources of all kinds.
The Star is also taking the campaign to heart by undertaking its own "green" plan at the Vaughan Press Centre and offices at One Yonge St.
And this week, WWF-Canada begins a companion campaign called "The Good Life," intended to help people take positive action on climate change while living happier, healthier lives in harmony with the environment.
It sets up a national system for tracking how we reduce our greenhouse emissions. You'll find details on the group's website: www.wwf.ca.
"It will prove the point that people are taking action and build the expectation for others to do their part as well," Langer says.
For Earth Hour, each city is setting its own goals for reduced electricity demand.
Toronto's is 5 per cent. Although that doesn't sound like much, it would be a substantial achievement and require mass participation by residents and businesses, according to Toronto Hydro.
On the other hand, there's no reason why we can't eclipse what Sydney accomplished last year.
Here's what's involved:
Looked at in the simplest way, lighting accounts for about 15 per cent of the total electricity demand on a typical late-March weekend evening.
During the past three years, the load has amounted to 3,345 megawatts during the equivalent to this year's Earth Hour period, Toronto Hydro says. So, one-third of all the lights in Toronto would have to go dark to reach the goal.
The real situation, though, is more complex.
On weekdays, residential demand accounts for only 20 per cent of the total load, but on a March Saturday night, with many businesses and factories closed, it rises to 30 per cent.
The city has about 600,000 dwellings. Assuming half are occupied on a Saturday night, and each is lit by 10 100-watt bulbs, if everyone at home turned off all their lights, demand would fall by 300 megawatts.
Just like that, we'd cut overall demand by nearly 9 per cent.
The effort can go beyond lights: You can eliminate other power drains, too, including the "phantom" or "vampire" load consumed by TVs, stereos, computers, cellphone chargers and any other gear that appears to be turned off but is eating up watts on standby.
Just pull the plug or switch the power bar to "off." Even better, shut down your gizmos and do something fun that doesn't require electricity at all. Your choice.
With all those options, we'd double the target just by cutting residential demand. But obviously, only with huge participation.
Some of the non-residential half of the load can't, or won't, be cut.
For safety reasons some lights, including traffic signals and 160,000 street lamps, must remain on. Condo and apartment hallways have to be illuminated. Subways and streetcars will keep trundling along.
And water treatment plants – among the city's main power consumers – can't be shut down.
The Leafs are scheduled to play the Montreal Canadiens that evening, and the Air Canada Centre isn't going to be darkened with 20,000 fans and players inside.
The ACC draws up to 10 megawatts when the rink and TV lights are on full blast.
Even so, the business side has plenty of scope to cut its demand, Hydro officials say.
For one thing, the downtown towers, which draw up to 10 to 15 megawatts each, don't need to be as brightly lit as they now are on Saturday nights.
Stores could tone down their outdoor signs; restaurants could serve meals by candlelight.
"The office towers are darker after business hours than they used to be, but there's a lot of room for improvement," Peberdy says.
Toronto's Earth Hour greenhouse gas savings won't be as dramatic as in Sydney because most of our electricity comes from hydro and nuclear stations, which – as long as they're generating power – are emissions-free.
In fact, it's difficult to say what the drop might be.
Over the past two years, Ontario's remaining coal plants have generated only about 18 per cent of the power produced province-wide between 8 and 9 p.m. on March 29.
Separate figures aren't available for Toronto. Assume we match the provincial result, though. Coal plants tend to be shut down first when power demand falls, because nuclear and hydro stations produce the cheapest power and nuclear plants are best left humming along at top speed.
So, we can assume much of the reduction will be at the coal-fuelled plants, but not all.
What will the city look like?
"All of the downtown better go dark," Langer says.
For certain, it won't be like the big blackout of 2003, when, for a time, almost every light was out and, for once, city dwellers could see stars shining brightly in the night sky.
It also won't be a surprise, so there's no need to fear stumbling around in the dark, or having a fridge full of food go bad.
But if enough condo dwellers and businesses participate, much of the skyline will be reduced to a dim silhouette. And if the rest of us join in, neighbourhoods will be dark and peaceful.
Again, Earth Hour is not about solving climate change: It's about people expressing concern and an intention to do something about it.
"Turning out the lights is a symbol of what we can do, and what we want to do," Langer says.
29th March 2008
8-9pm
http://earthhoursingapore.blogspot.com
Anyone for organising an obs session that night?
8-9pm
http://earthhoursingapore.blogspot.com
Anyone for organising an obs session that night?