Earth Hour 2009 – Where Will You Be When The Lights Go Out?

by Tammy Plotner on February 20, 2009

With less than six weeks to go, more than 500 cities around the world have officially agreed to go dark in support of global action on climate change. On March 28, 2009 at 8:30 p.m., local time, World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour — Earth Hour — to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate their commitment to finding solutions. Step inside and find out how you can become a part of this historic event…

Wherever you happen to be in the world on March 28th at 8:30 p.m., you’re likely to find a city or community somewhere nearby that is making plans to turn out the lights for Earth Hour – a global goal of 1,000 cities! WWF’s initiative aims to increase awareness about climate change and demonstrate that people from all over the world care about the issue. “Climate change and what we do about it is going to transform the world much more rapidly than people realize.” say Richard Moss, Vice President and Managing Director for Climate Change. “It’s my goal to get us moving to a world we will want, not one we’ll regret leaving for our children and grandchildren.”

Before you start knocking “Earth Hour” as something that just won’t make a difference, take just a moment of your time and watch this, please…

And now, here are some highlights of what’s going on around Earth Hour 2009 as we count down the days…

NASHVILLE: Earth Hour launched in Music City with a musical press conference that included live performances by Nashville superstars pledging to turn out against climate change.

THE STARS AND STRIPES ARE ALIGNING: Houston, TX; Santa Rosa, CA; St Louis, MO; Sarasota, FL; Minneapolis, MN; and Valdosta, GA signed up to be part of Earth Hour 2009. They join Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York City and San Francisco.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU ANNOUNCES HIS SUPPORT: “Climate change is the greatest human induced crisis facing the world today. It is totally indiscriminate of race, culture and religion. It affects every human being on the planet. Earth Hour is an opportunity for every man, woman and child from all corners of the globe to come together with a united voice and make a loud and powerful statement on the issue of climate change.”

BACK TO MY OLD SCHOOL: The University of Miami became the first American campus to officially sign up to turn off, but was quickly joined by Michigan State, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of Virginia, Belmont, Columbia, Ohio University, Howard University, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Spellman, University of Missouri, St. Louis and Vanderbilt.

I GOT THE POWER: 10,000 college students from across the nation will converge on Washington DC on February 27–March 2 for Power Shift ’09, asking for “bold, comprehensive and immediate federal climate action.” Earth Hour Project Director Meg Pearce and Campus Organizer Sophie Latham will be there holding a special session on how to be part of Earth Hour 2009, the largest global climate event in history.

CITY OF LIGHTS TO TURN LIGHTS OFF IN SUPPORT OF WWF’S EARTH HOUR 2009: Paris—known as the City of Lights—will lead a list of 28 cities and towns across France that have committed to join the world in making a visual vote for decisive action on climate change by turning off their lights for one hour during Earth Hour 2009 on March 28th.

LAS VEGAS FLICKS THE SWITCH FOR EARTH HOUR 2009: Officials from World Wildlife Fund joined Clark County, Nevada Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, City of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and City of Henderson Mayor James B. Gibson at the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign to officially kick off the Las Vegas Valley’s participation in Earth Hour–a global event calling for action on climate change.

For now? Be sure to visit the Earth Hour website, where you can sign up to show your support and find all kinds of wonderful tools and ideas on how to motivate your community, school, family and friends to pledge just one hour of their time to darkness and become part of this global event.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar…Earth Hour is March 28, 2009, at 8:30 pm. Be there with us when the lights go out…

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  • http://www.culturalconscience.com Farcall

    ScienceDaily 3 August 2004. 22 February 2009 .

    And, again, the misinformation masterpiece about the Sun being the source of all our problems. Should I even bother to point out in 2004 the Max Planck Institute, after a lengthly study of the question concluded the Global Warming of the last 20 to 30 years far outstripped *anything* the Sun could possibility have done? 98% of the problem ?is pure, and discredited, fantasy. But what would they know about it, right? It’s not a political position but a scientific position they are taking.

    The entire article is at the site listed above.

    M Jackson: For your concern, I will give *you* the humanitarian award for the day. But I notice you have answered almost nothing I’ve asked. How many deaths and what destruction of the environment would have come about if we *had* continued to carpet bomb everything with DDT and other chemicals, including in those 3rd World contries you’re concerned with?…where, without even the slight restraints *we* had in place, the crapet bombing would have been, most likely, far worse?

    And what about all those nuke dreged harbors and canals? No coments on that? OH! And I forgot! You ever hear of Project Orion? A really *great idea* that would have launched nuclear powered rockets from the ground! But not just *any* nuclear powered rockets – nooo. These would be lofted from the ground by ejecting nuclear bombs from their rear ends and the *blast* would send the ship skyward. Then another, nuke, another blast, and again and again and again…but I’ll bet you’ve got the idea by now.

    Man, wouldn’t *that* have created a “no fly zone”! Florida would have loved it, wouldn’t they? How much death and destruction would all of those nukes have caused?

    Nothing humans ever do will be perfect, I know that. But don’t you dare preach to me about deaths that did happen, and ignore what *would* have turned into a Global Nightmare with far more deaths had we continued the way the chemical companies and our own government wanted us to.

  • robbi

    Farcell, take away the Sun, what will you have.. (period)

  • http://www.culturalconscience.com Farcall

    A really cold planet. Period.

  • robbi

    ahhhhhhh, U underestimated our lifegiver!!!!
    No Sun, no fun

  • robbi

    Fascall, I like to see what the satetiltes findings on less salinity on the north Atlantic
    Ocean- if the Global Oceanic Conveyor Belt stops, the biggest losers will be Western Europe as there is a large population there and the latitudes of most countries are north of the lower US 48 states. I don’t know if the melting has ‘gone over the edge’ as far as
    decreased salinity of the North Atlantic is concerned, but a mass migration of a few hundred million people over a period of 50-100 years sounds very dangerous. I do want the use of hydrocarbons to decrease because of decreasing visiblity of the night sky and filthy air, but, we must not forget what entity really runs the show, the Sun.
    We must also not forget Mama Earth is not going to let some pesky ‘humans’ do what they want to do at will, Mama Earth will shake off the ‘fleas’ and decides to close an ‘engine’ off (Global Oceanic Conveyor Belt) and chill out!!! We’ve done alot of damage to the surface and groundwaters,and we have to clean these things up and will take decades and trillons of dollars.

  • robbi

    addendum-I should have stated the latitudes
    of many countries in Europe are north of the lower US 48 states, many people in the US
    don’t realize how far north most European countries are as many areas in Europe are over a thousand miles closer to the NorthPole
    and has a warmer climate than a large area of the US ,especially the winters.

  • Mike Jackson

    “These would be lofted from the ground by ejecting nuclear bombs from their rear ends and the *blast* would send the ship skyward.”

    That’s the nail in your coffin. You are a scary guy. Obviously there is no tragedy, no humanitarian disaster, no effectively racial genocide that you couldn’t justify because of what might happen if we didn’t, no matter how far fetched the “threat”.

    Unbelievable. It doesn’t even matter to you that Silent Spring has been widely discredited, even among environmentalists, while they still credit it with starting the Enviro movement.

    Ugh.

  • robbi

    Mike Jackson-This Farcall, another one who forgot what entity runs our climate-Papa Sun.
    Someone who did not check the climatology charts for Indiana how the climate was since 1900 and saw the 1930s’ was nasty.!! I told these people who said this and that about the weather XXyears ago was, did you see the data and where did you really live!? I had an ex-coworker who complains the weather in California was stormier in the 50′s-60s’, I showed him charts and he shutup when he found out the 1990s was the stormiest Decade in California!! This fool couldn’t believe the Sun was 93M miles from Earth and couldn’t believe the Sun controls our weather!., I said, what, you think some priest raise his hands and said let there be light and heat!?!? He shutup and another old dog who was forced to retire or be fired as he couldn’t learn any tricks in System Network Processing. Anytime someone gives me some BS the Sun is of no concern, I just say, take away the Sun-this shows them how self-centered they are and want to be part of a UN empire building organization calling for more funds, more funds equals power, power equals more funds equals more power, etc. These people don’t look at the big picture and see what other things can happen, and Mama Earth will make sure some ‘pesky’ lifeforms will be put back in their place by doing something unexpected-what is worst, getting warmer or going into an Ice Age!?!?
    I admit humans should wean away from hydrocarbons as it does make the night sky more hazier and the visiblitiy can be quite poor on temperature inversion days but I’ve indicated on ealier feeds things like fuel cells and natural gas to run vehicles are decades away and the problem to set up an infrastructure, -solar power,geeezzz, takes up alot of land to power a big metro area. Nuclear power, yes but NIMBY, there is no such thing as an emtpy area!!! Wind power, NIMBY and they are noisey , go to Altamont Pass, Near Tracy, California and see what they look like and they are falling apart!!!
    Hydroelectric, don’t dam up the rivers as the environmentalist say and will block all attempts. As long as these so-called environmentalist has their gas-guzzling large SUV and has their way and does not affect their lifestyle, they say we should not have this or that because it is bad.!!! California is nearing 40M people and although it has been raining, it is not yet enough, sooner or later, there will have to be
    desalination plants built. Petroleum will continue to be the choice of consumers for the rest of the century,like it or not!!!!

  • http://www.culturalconscience.com Farcall

    M Jackson: I think you really, *really* missed the point of my last post. I was hardly defending the Project Orion concept. It was the insane idea of the century. The spaceship described actually could work, but would only be – fairly – safe in deep space, not taking off from the Cape.

    Try reading it again.

  • robbi

    Hi Tammy, sometimes I can be somewhat
    staright, perhaps harsh to the point on things, but, should someone say something about the climate about so and so place, they had better be informed I read and research much in climatology and have about 1000 favorites in weather alone, I study climatology,especially the past events about why early cultures in the Americas why empire started and then ended and find out why-climate is the most important factor, especially the Anasazi and other past cultures-today where the Anasazi location is in semi-arid New Mexico amazed me as the climate was much more moist during the periods of settlement there and happened about 700 to 1150 and about the height of the Vikings and fall of their influence.of why very little was known of NW Europe during the ice age then the breakup-how wars and other world events, climate was perhaps the most important factor-how Washington crossed the Delaware during the ‘little ice age’ in 1776 where today the Delaware river does not really freeze up. There is so much I study and research about many things concerning past climate events around the world and how the people are the way they are today, Studying about the weather and climatology is a very close 2nd behind Astronomy in my ‘puter hobby activities, and read up much on what NOAA has to say and about so and so month or event, to many people,reading the NOAA reports would be considered very boring to most people,especailly the charts and data but to me is very interesting and use simple climate simulations. I have about 500GB of data on Weather alone on my HD, not including the backups=this is why I have about 7TB internal and 4TB external HD space, as I double the backups besides a ton of multi media and other ‘puter activities.
    I seen through NOAA the average temperatures in the far Northern clims have risen, yet for places like Vardo, Norway at 70 degrees N latitude, no change-FYI Jan is 27F -2.5C high and 19F -7.2C is warmer than Portland, Maine

  • http://www.culturalconscience.com Farcall

    “Mama Earth will make sure some ‘pesky’ lifeforms will be put back in their place by doing something unexpected-what is worst, getting warmer or going into an Ice Age!?” I like that – so are you Wiccan? Or a supporter of GAIA? Do you think the Earth is conscious, that is, self aware?

    Of course the Sun controls the Earth’s weather. And if there were no Sun, there would be a frozen ball with no weather. Why state the obivious?

    So you show somebody some stats, you say, and it shuts them up. You show others the same thing, and man, they clam up, too – you say – bowing to your stats.

    Well, big whoop. I can pay the same game, and probably started playing it before you were born. See *all* these people – even older than me! – tell me the weather is changing, flowers and grass and trees blooming and growing out of season. I’ve noticed it myself – can you imagine that? And I just looked, for the third year in a row my Pear Trees are putting out *buds* in Feb, something they have *never* done before recently.

    See, I’m *not* talking about *stats*, I’m talking about what I see the weather, and life doing. We just came back from vacation in the Smoky Mountains where I – as I always do – took occasion to talk to the Park Rangers.

    The Smoky Mountains are dying. Between the invasion of foreign bugs and diseases – *and a high increase of air pollution* – their words, not mine – they expect to have to replant virtually *every tree on the Mountains* in the next 25 to 30 years.

    Due to our current economy and budget cuts, many Rangers will be losing their jobs in less than 30 days.

    As one lady Ranger told me, “There is plenty of work to do, but there won’t be enough people to do it.”

    Sorry Robbi. I don’t think Mother Earth can react fast enough to save itself, even it it could *will* to do so, which is a cool fantasy but not reality.

  • robbi

    sorry I did not finish= Portland ME 32F 0C days, 12F -11.1C nights, although Vardo is over 1500miles North of Portland ME.
    Vardo,Norway is much warmer in winter and summer than Barrow, Alaska but Barrow is an icebound ‘port’. There are ‘heat islands’ in most cities and in the US, any downtown official NOAA site has moved their instuments to the more open areas of the city
    in about the same wind open conditions to reflect that core area .Although daytime temperatures did not rise in the central city, it was nighttime lows that was getting quite high, ruining the true temperature trend. This is really the case in Phoenix,even the Airpost, before the 1980s’ the July daytime temperatures was 105, lows 75, today it is 104 days, 82 nights, I know Phoenix(Scottsdale) because my Sons and Grandkids live there. In the 1990s’ there was some resistance from some fringe tree huggers not to move the weather instruments, but it is well known to all that the core area of the city is a ”heat island’, it is the outlying areas that is more important .In Sacramento where I live, the 80s’ had heat waves that was really bad because it stayed no lower than 75 for a few days at a time.The 90s’ , except for 1991 when Mt Pinotubo erupted in the Philippines and was cooler than normal, the summers were trying at times.. This decade a few summers were below normal, but July 2006 a great heat wave happened, it killed about 50-100 people living in non-air conditioned flop houses, it was 111 day 84 night, about 101 at Midnight and the humidity was higher than normal and the heat wave crossed the country.A great heat wave hit Europe in August 2003, places like Paris usually 76F 23.9C days 55F 12.8 night was about 101F 38.3C days 85F 29.4C night for a weeks or so killed 10s of thousands as the areas had the humidity coming up from the Mediterrean Sea, very unusual!!!.
    Since 2003 Europe pretty much returned to normal summer and winters.
    When someone does not believe when I said the Sun is 98% that drives our climate with 2% the Earth itself and humans .015, but the humans are filthy and pollutes the air, I will say to that person ‘what will you have when you take the Sun away!?? Thats’ enough to shut up all except the inmates commited to an asylum for the criminally insane! I like to see our Earth cleaned up, the ground damage is bad and ruined our possible use of wells, cleaning up something that is visible and dangerous will take decades and cost a few trillion dollars but has to be done.
    Done try to say humans are the main cause of ‘global warming’ it is true again the most coldest Northern areas have warmed up, but as far as the coast of California is concerned, it reverted back to the cool/cold conditions normal before 1982-1998 warm conditions during the summers.Global warming is not truly ‘global’.. Back to NOAA, I read reports, again boring to most, that the meilting of glaciers in the Arctic and Greenland has not been enough to affect the ‘global oceanic covayer belt’ or the Thermohaline circulation’

    Sorry Farcell, you flunked again, because I was not finished. I can see outside, perhaps your personal body circulation has been affectedf but records speaks for itself

  • robbi

    Farcell, how old are you, I’m 58yo, if you are much older, perhaps your memory fails you.

  • robbi

    Farcell, the Earth may already past the point of no return and go into a ice-age.
    I can see really well, and know how much
    the air was cleaned up in LA due to the smog
    that turned the city unhealthy.
    I have reservations on TRUE global warming and don’t want to spend money on things that will not make a difference. If you think the Earth can’t change it’s climate fast, how about a super volcanic eruption?!?!
    Sorry, Farcell, I guess you got brainwashed
    and think humans are more powerful than the Earth.lol

  • robbi

    Farcell, first you were mad saying the Sun does nothing to global warming, now you say of course it is our weather. You are strange
    and like Mike Jackson said ‘scary to yourself’
    It would do you better to do some research before you say what is important. The Great Smoky Mountains gets all the junk from the west, acid rain has been known for many years—, you taught me NOTHING.
    However, you refuse to get out of your self-centered shell. Fine with me, I got more important things to do than talk with a senile
    young person like you.

  • robbi

    Farcell, you gave your age away on the first page of the feed. To bad you are already getting senile.,

  • robbi

    Farcell
    ‘And, again, the misinformation masterpiece about the Sun being the source of all our problems. ‘
    ‘Of course the Sun controls the Earth’s weather’
    You didn’t know the obvious.lol
    Make up your mind !!!!!! LMAO, what a loser!!!

  • robbi

    Farcell, where R U, when I multi-task on 3 ‘puters at the same time, lol, your statements when I had hit enter by mistake and you only read half the post when I wasn’t finished makes it even more funny to me when your will read the rest of what was suppose to be one long post.Lol
    I stand by my conclusions.
    Give me your age.
    As they say, you can’t BS a BS, and con an
    old con lol

  • robbi

    Farcell
    ‘ Jackson: The *here* that is *now* is the *warming*. When I was about 10 years old, I think, we had 10+ inches of snow in April and a few years later, there was even snow flurries in *May* during 500 mile race weekend. I remember “real” and distinct seasons. Despite the fact this Winter we had heavy snow, some ice and several below zero days in Indiana, it stll does not compare with the Winters of the ’50′s -’60′s when temps of 15 to 25*below* were far more common.’
    Farcell, it appears you longed for the ‘good old day’ There was a winter of 63 that was cold-the winter of the 50′s was above average, there was no notable storms in the 50′s. In fact, for the all-year decade as a whole, the 50s’ decade was about the warmest. The coldest winters and snowiest was 1977,1978, these were the winters that ‘chicken little’ said we are going into an ‘ice age’. Interesting that in 1989 there was a 1/4 inch snow in May 1989.,Snow in April 3 inches in 1956,1961 , very few Aprils in 1950s’ and 1960s’ had even more than a trace, in the 1970s,1980s/1990s 1-2 inches most years in April, Dispite the fact the average minimum temperatures was higher since about 1980 due to ‘heat islands’, the average winter, summer, annual was slightly lower than the 1950s’. In 1936 the July average was 92 days 72 night or 82 average.
    Nothing approched that since.It reached 107 in July 1934. I’ve checked Kansas, Chicago,
    to see the trend for errors, pretty much the same. Did it occur that you walked alot in the 50s’ and 60s’ and had junk heaters and other problems with autos in those days.
    You are exactly the same type like an ex-coworker who though about the winters in California and said they were bad in the 1950s’1960s;, well, I lived thru the 50s’ and 60s’ also, and the stormiest was the 1990s’.
    Today, you have efficent heating and cooling in autos. It would do you good if you go out and walk more during the winter days instead of getting in your climate control car saying how bad it was in the 50s-60s’=excercising will help prevent you getting a heart attack at a relatively young age.
    Quick thinking about the ‘good old days’ , it may have been good if you were white, but to many others, those were the bad days.!!!!!
    We live in 2009 and start thinking for yourself instead of being brainwashed or weak-minded. Open your mind up.

  • lame

    Turning off the lights for 1 hour is as pointless as a candle light vigil.

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