Mar 29, 2008 8:30 pm US/Pacific
U.S. Cities Go Dark For Earth Hour
Cities Raise Climate Change Awareness, One Time Zone At A Time
DENVER, Co. (CBS News) ―
Several U.S.
cities joined hundreds of others across the world in dimming or shutting off
lights in a nod to Earth Hour Saturday night.
The event which first began in Sydney
last year is now being embraced by 26 major cities and more than 300 other
cities and towns worldwide who want to fight global warming and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. Each city dimmed or turned off lights for one hour,
beginning at 8 p.m. in local time zones Saturday, CBS station KCNC-TV reported.
U.S. cities participating in Earth Hour include San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and Phoenix.
Organizers of the event say about 2.2 million people and more than 2,000
businesses participated in Sydney's
Earth Hour last year. They say the result was a 10.2 percent reduction in carbon
emissions during that hour.
From Rome's
Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House, floodlit icons of civilization went dark
Saturday for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of
climate change.
The environmental group WWF urged governments, businesses and households to turn
back to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8 p.m. wherever they
were.
The campaign began last year in Australia,
and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe
in cadence with the setting of the sun. Several U.S.
cities also planned symbolic blackouts or dimmings of monuments, including at
the Golden Gate Bridge
in San Francisco.
"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and
happening in places like China,
Vietnam, Papua New Guinea,"
said Andy Ridley, executive director of Earth Hour. "It really seems to
have resonated with anybody and everybody."
Earth Hour officials hoped 100 million people would turn off their nonessential
lights and electronic goods for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse
gases that fuel climate change.
In Sydney,
where an estimated 2.2 million observed the blackout last year, officials said
it appeared at least as popular this time, involving untold candlelight dinners
and beach-bonfire parties. The city's two architectural icons, the Opera House
and Harbour Bridge, faded to black.
Last year's shutdown produced an estimated cut of 10.2 percent in Australia's
carbon emissions for that hour.
More than two dozen cities and 300 towns across the globe planned their own
smaller, largely symbolic switch-offs.
Lights went out at the famed Wat Arun Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand;
shopping and cultural centers in Manila, Philippines; several castles in Sweden
and Denmark; the parliament building in Budapest, Hungary; a string of
landmarks in Warsaw, Poland; and both London City Hall and Canterbury Cathedral
in England.
Greece, an hour ahead of
most of Europe, was the first on the continent
to mark Earth Hour. On the isle of Aegina, near Athens, much of its population marched by
candlelight to the port. Parts of Athens
itself, including the floodlit city hall, also turned to black.
In Ireland,
where environmentalists are part of the coalition government, lights-out orders
went out for scores of government buildings, bridges and monuments in more than
a dozen cities and towns.
Activists gathered outside one of Dublin's
most impressive floodlit buildings, the riverfront Custom House, and cheered as
the lights went out. The building houses the Environment Department, run by a
Green Party minister.
But next door, the international banks and brokerages of Dublin's financial district blazed away with
light, illuminating floor after empty floor of desks and idling computers.
"The banks should have embraced this wholeheartedly and they didn't. But
it's a start. Maybe next year," said Cathy Flanagan, an Earth Hour
organizer in Dublin.
Ireland's more than 7,000 pubs elected not to take part - in part because of
the risk that Saturday night revelers could end up smashing glasses, falling
down stairs, or setting themselves on fire with candles.
Likewise, much of Europe - including France,
Germany, Spain and
European Union institutions - planned nothing to mark Earth Hour.
Internet search engine Google lent its support to Earth Hour by blackening its
normally white home page and challenging visitors: "We've turned the
lights out. Now it's your turn."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
