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Mark your calendars: For one hour on March 29th, Chicago will be in the dark. The City of Chicago and COM ED are asking businesses and residents to turn off their lights and unplug all electrical devices between 8 and 9pm on Saturday, March 29th to participate in Earth Hour, a global initiative organized by the World Wildlife Fund in which cities and communities turn out their lights to symbolize their commitment to finding climate change solutions.
Earth Hour kicked off last year in Sydney when over 2.2 million residents turned off their power, resulting in a 10.2 percent drop in energy use. This year the movement is spreading across 6 continents with over 20 major cities set to participate. Chicago will serve as the U.S. flagship city for Earth Hour in 2008, and our officials are taking it seriously. Sadhu Johnston, Chicago's commissioner of the environment has been convincing with building managers throughout the city to participate, and the Sears Tower and the Merchandise Mart are on board. Mayor Daley is urging all Chicagoans to take part in this event to help further his goal in "making Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the world."
According to the website, exciting Earth Hour events will be announced shortly. We vote for a Bono/Gore reunion tour, but it may be more along the lines of low-key flashlight driven events. Last year The Rockpool restaurant was one of the many restaurants in Sydney to shut off their lights and hosted a full-house candle lit dinner for 110 people to celebrate the occasion. Why yes, a romantic candlelit dinner does sound like a spectacular way to participate in the fight against global warming. Will any Chicago restaurants follow suit?
Sign up here to participate and show your support for Earth Hour 2008. [S-T] --Jacy Wojcik
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This is completely awesome.
Hear hear!
An hour of looting and riots cool.
How does that work? Do they turn off the street lamps too? That'd save a great amount of power, but would be kind of dangerous
It'll be just like if the terrorists won.
I'm guessing/hoping hospitals are exempt.
I'm guessing/hoping hospitals are exempt.
@Ontology:
Nope. This is just a quiet way to cut away some "deadwood".
/sarcasm
But ComEd has proven themselves to be pretty committed to carbon reduction... they're one of the largest commercial nuclear operators in the world.
Earth hour, earth hour! The one I adore.
I hope that ALL city buildings participate (that includes you giant stadium flood lights illuminating the Wrigley Bldg.)
Not to be a curmudgeon, but what exactly is this supposed to accomplish? Some sort of vague "awareness"? How does turning the lights off for an hour help make "Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the world" when the needle on the meter will just shoot back into the red zone at 9:00?
I think we're beyond the point where we can afford to waste time on empty symbolism. (insert Obama joke here)
Turning off lights in high rise offices and unused rooms = cool.
Turning off lights that are on for safety reasons = NOT COOL
Let's hope people exercise common sense when participating in this.
you just new someone would come in with a jaded comment. turning off the lights to promote and encourage energy efficiency is in no way "vague awareness". it's in fact the opposite of vague. there is nothing bad about this idea. nothing
Again, how does this "promote and encourage" anything? It's like an alcoholic giving up the booze for one day. I'll stand by my description of "vague" -- sitting in the dark for an hour doesn't make most think about "energy efficiency", but rather how dependent we are on electricity. And will most also think to unplug their refrigerator, the biggest energy hog in a residential dwelling?
And I'll admit I'm old and jaded, but you misconstrue my comment -- I didn't say it was "bad", or that Earth Day is "bad", etc., etc. There isn't a negative effect. It's just that acts like these aren't some panacea to be lauded by everyone such as Mayor Daley. Don't you think the end result would have been much greater if those 2.2 million people/businesses in Australia instead on that day changed merely one of the light bulbs in their house/office to a CFL? It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that would result in a much higher net energy savings over the course of a month than unplugging for an hour.
Will Chicagoist go offline? If not, I cry Hippo!
this event isn't meant to save energy per se and there is no doubt there is more people can do to save energy beyond turning lights off. it's purpose is awareness and to send a message. if someone sitting in the dark for an hour doesn't understand the reason for the event, they'd have to be the most dense person in the world. it's about as vague as hitting someone in the head with a frying pan. i think it's a good idea and the ones who came up with it should be commended. it should be commended for what it is, not criticized for what it's not.
A useless stunt.
If we really want to be green, we have to work harder than this.
you couldn't come up with a more apt definition of 'useless' than people who sit on their asses bitching/criticizing everything
i'm sure the wwf thinks this will solve all the environmental issues in the world. brilliant fucking comment matilda
You are right, Magilla. One should go along and accept stupidity, and if one can't say something nice, one should not talk at all.
Brilliant insight you offer.
Awareness? I doubt that will come from sitting in the dark. How about real education about daily conservation measures, or a real national conversation about energy and what we need to do to be green? How about an examination of our food production methods, which also suck up ungodly amounts of energy? Any of this shit would be more effective than turning out some lights for an hour on some Saturday.
This reminds me of bullshit like Hands Across America, another pointless PR stunt.
who's going to hold this national conversation you recommend? i don't think the wwf/sierra club/greenpeace/etc. have the resources and money to do that. the only possible way to reach out and educate on a mass level would be through the federal government and we both know that would never happen (at least now).
as i stated before, this "stunt" isn't going to solve everything but will know doubt do more good than harm. to bitch about it is silly and juvenile. arguing about their methods and bringing up separate issues is akin to complaining about making the public aware of the dangers of cigarettes because it does nothing about breast cancer
If it creates a dialogue it's not a useless stunt. Awareness is as important as practice as the first begets the second.
I'd love to participate but it would require us to stop our wind generator and disable the solar panels (if the moon is bright enough, smarty pants, they might still be effective that time of the day).
Have fun!