Earth Hour 2012: Will You Turn Off The Lights?

COUNTDOWN TO EARTH HOUR (ET):

At 8:30 PM Saturday, some of the world's most famous landmarks will go dark for Earth Hour 2012. From the Empire State Building to the Great Wall of China, non-essential lighting will be turned off at important locations around the globe.

Earth Hour, a global initiative led by World Wildlife Fund, encourages individuals around the world to shut off their lights on Saturday March 31 for one hour, beginning at 8:30 PM in each time zone.

The event, according to its organizers, is meant to raise awareness for climate change and to encourage "support for environmentally sustainable action."

Andy Ridley, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Earth Hour, said in a press release, “In 2012, Earth Hour is reaching further and wider than ever before and these landmarks will provide a visually spectacular reminder of what can be done when individuals, organisations and governments act together.

In addition to buildings, landmarks and individuals, the International Space Station will also participate in Earth Hour, as its crew watches the world's lights dim from above.

Even the National Hockey League will be taking part in Earth Hour. All 30 NHL teams have pledged to dim the lights on Saturday, including the 20 clubs that will be on the ice that evening. Bernadette Mansur, SVP of NHL Green, said in a press release, "For the NHL, the success of this event is about more than turning the lights off for one hour. It is about changing the way our sport approaches energy consumption."

As HuffPost blogger Maggie Koerth-Baker notes, Earth Hour isn't about rejecting modern technology or tallying the energy saved from one hour per year.

"The problem isn't individual choices," she argues. Rather, it is "infrastructures that often limit our energy choices and incentivize wasting energy rather than conserving it."

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has grown in subsequent years. According to the initiative's website, 2011's Earth Hour was observed in over 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries. Earth Hour's website reported Friday that a record 147 countries and territories are preparing to take part in the event.

[Check out images from last year's Earth Hour and 2010's global observance.]

When observing Earth Hour, it is important to think about the ways you can save energy year-round. According to the EPA, in 2011, 41 percent of all U.S. carbon emissions came from electricity generation.

Overall domestic energy usage in the U.S. has decreased slightly in the past three decades, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but the percentage of electricity used by "appliances and electronics in U.S. homes has nearly doubled from 17 percent to 31 percent."

Click here for a children's Earth Hour activity book from Pocoyo filled with ideas for observing Earth Hour on Saturday. Below, find Pocoyo's tips for saving energy year-round.

WATCH the official Earth Hour 2012 video:

From our partners

• Widespread Greenland Melting A Sign Of Things To Come - Climate Central
• Limiting Methane Leaks Critical To Gas, Climate Benefits - Climate Central
• 11 Images And Facts About A Misunderstood Creature - Mother Nature Network

Comments

[paultheuglydog]

01:16 AM on 04/03/2013

If last month I used over 3000 kilowatt hours of electricity last month, did I cause a lot of pollution?

[SixPackJoe]

11:24 AM on 03/11/2013

Let's see here. AGW has NOT been proven to exist. It is tantamount to the AL-CIA-DA threat. Both manufactured for political gain and reduction of both national and individual sovereignty. Turn your lights off, if you're a fool. THERE IS NO AGW THREAT! If you're that afraid, you should be frightened of scary bearded Muslims with box cutters, as well.

The AGW hoax is the manufactured crisis from the Left just as the phony war on terror was from the Right.

Fossil fuels? Not a pollution issue when done right. Peak oil? Not a chance. More and more is discovered all the time. New light bulbs? Way more dangerous than an incandescent could dream to be. The only way an incandescent would hit any one is from the broken glass.

The Left claims to be smarter than the Right. It's high time for them to prove it. All I've seen is that their religion compasses point in a different direction.

[lbsaltzman]

03:53 PM on 04/11/2013

Global warming was not manufactured by the left any more than the right. In fact, it has nothing to do with either politics or ideology. The science behind the established theory of anthropogenic global warming is about as strong as it can be. Pretending otherwise may make you feel better but it doesn't change the science. By the way people on the left were almost as slow as people on the right to pick up on the warnings from scientists about global warming.

[SixPackJoe]

09:22 PM on 04/11/2013

What evidence are you referring to? That debunked nonsense from the "peer reviewed" science groups? Here's something you may want to research. It's called "weather modification" or "geo-engineering." Also look up "weather weapons."

Please tell me that you're aware of the Club of Rome and that in their own documentation, they admit to having created the idea of global warming to achieve their political and social aims.

Global warming IS ideology. It is as much an ideology for the Left that the war on terror is for the Right. That evidence you reference is manufactured. Just as the Muslim threat is. Overall temperatures on the planet are lower. As a result, they had to stop calling it global warming and convert the dialog to "climate change." Holy crap! We're going to declare war on the four seasons? Are they going to stop the planet from tilting and orbiting the sun? Get serious.

The concocted emails were the tip of the ice berg. That hockey stick graph is something they must have borrowed from the national debt charts. That or the rising unemployment figures which would come as a result of deindustrializing the United States as a result of carbon taxes.

[SixPackJoe]

09:22 PM on 04/11/2013

You need to ask Al Gore why he's buying property if there is a threat of sea level rising. No, we "denialists" are not the problem. And have you looked into why China is getting all of our industry with no environmental controls? The people on this side of the ocean rigged it that way. Why is China building dirty coal plants in the multiples while we are shutting down clean coal? Come on. Let's have an answer.

The next time you step outside, look up and ask yourself, why are they changing the weather with their atmospheric modification programs? Why are they spraying dangerous chemicals that damage life? And what about the depleted uranium and other spreading and dangerous issues? It seems to me as though the Left fell asleep on the environmentalism issues.

[NutCaseJack]

01:27 PM on 10/05/2012

Its a all new REVOLUTION

[This American]

10:20 AM on 08/18/2012

The lights have already been turned off on the AGW hoax. It is time for the professional scare mongers and liberty extinguishers to find another scam. What will it be? Biodiversity? Genetically modified food? The need for government to decide what we can eat? The appalling lack of thought crimes that are formally codified into law? God only knows.

[gallon]

11:54 AM on 08/18/2012

This is all false blather thrown up as a distraction from the reality of AGW.

As it warms out there, notice how the deniers become more frantic that we somehow see what they see.

[StephenBP]

10:01 AM on 08/18/2012

I see that the Fossil Fuel Flies have come here to soil the discussion.

A fossil fuel fly is someone who is in favor of waste, corruption, pollution, ignorance, and selfishness. Their vision is not very good. They aren't very bright. Basically all they do is eat manure (that the Filthy Fossil Fuel Industry feeds them in abundance ) and bother people.

[SixPackJoe]

11:26 AM on 03/11/2013

You're proving you don't know much about fossil fuels. What would you prefer powering your region? Clean coal or a nuclear reactor that will leak. Guess what! Just about ALL nuke reactors leak.

[Kenz300]

11:07 PM on 04/29/2012

Save energy and save money.................

[S M V]

08:29 PM on 04/04/2012

Leave your lights on an celebrate Human Achievement Hour. 

Read some history to your children about how harnessing the power of fossil fuels allowed the forests to re-grow and streams to flow again in Europe when we no longer burn every twig to keep warm and dam every stream for power. 

How much cleaner cities became once we no longer depended on horses and related waste. 

How global trade lubricated by cheep oil is linking people and ideas allowing them to work together peacefully and voluntarily to creating a wealthier, happier more egalitarian world. 

Finally celebrate how the increased prosperity, innovation and informal webs of cooperation spread around the world will allow us to solve tomorrows problems, whatever the cause, provided government force does not derail the growth through regulations and restrictions.

[GSR]

08:35 AM on 08/18/2012

And then inform them how they will probably die well before reaching reaching 50 because the planet's energy I/O inbalance will cause mass starvation and war.

[S M V]

09:54 AM on 08/18/2012

Under the IPCCs most likely prediction (assumes no significant further actions to reduce glabal warming) life span continues to increase, standard of living continues to improve and population growth is driven mainly by people living longer rather than people having more children.
Look at the sections on scenarios yourself.

[SixPackJoe]

11:27 AM on 03/11/2013

That's not what will start war. Starvation, yes. Only because the monopolies will make it exorbitantly expensive.

[StephenBP]

10:02 AM on 08/18/2012

Thalidomide.

[WESmith]

04:58 PM on 04/03/2012

In 1951, my father decided to go with only flourescent lighting.
In 2011, I decided to go with only LED lights. All of the lights in my home run on a single 12V battery and a solar charger from Harbor Freight.

[Kenz300]

11:05 PM on 04/29/2012

LED's are great and use only 25% of the energy of regular bulbs.

[SixPackJoe]

11:27 AM on 03/11/2013

They are also part of the surveillance grid which operates through the power lines.

[GSR]

10:34 PM on 04/02/2012

The first Earth Hour was sponsored by the 191 year-old quality broadsheet, The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007. Its competitors in the Sydney market, the Murdoch owned Daily Telegraph and The Australian lampooned the event as an utter joke on a daily basis leading up to and following the event. The next year it was observed internationally and Murdoch's chuckle immediately disappeared. I have reason to believe that it is still missing.

[bleedingheartlibertarian]

03:39 PM on 04/01/2012

North Korea is cutting edge for a day.

[Kenz300]

12:26 AM on 04/01/2012

Wasting energy is like throwing money away. Did you get a thank you note from your utility company last month?

Save the money and take the family out to dinner. They will appreciate it more than your local utility company.

[Reason Rules]

12:26 AM on 04/01/2012

Yep, sitting in the dark right now. Too bad Huff Po did not feature this article on their front page. I learned about it on YouTube. They have been featuring a light bulb icon on their page all day today.

[SixPackJoe]

11:28 AM on 03/11/2013

Turn your lights back on. This is a joke on mankind.

[lbsaltzman]

03:57 PM on 04/11/2013

Ignoring what reputable scientists are saying and ignoring the masses of evidence that back their statements is the joke on mankind. Only it isn't a funny joke, because attitudes like yours will destroy civilization, and possibly our species.

[Kenz300]

12:24 AM on 04/01/2012

LED's use 75% less energy.

[JScott]

11:21 PM on 03/31/2012

Yup promote /encourage more outside lighting that is 'downlighted' like in Arizona.

My part of Los Angeles just converted all its streetlighting to LED, still get the light but none of the spillover into the night sky. I seldom turn on the outside lights anyway, the inside lights are on even when I'm away so that the house looks occupied.

[Andrew Harvey]

11:07 PM on 03/31/2012

So if they turn off all the street lights, and a few dozen women get raped worldwide as a result, would you still consider "Earth Hour" to be a success?

Let me backtrack on that for a minute. Replace rape with traffic accidents / home invasions / burglaries / or just general unproductive behavior, if that offends you.

[lbsaltzman]

11:15 PM on 04/01/2012

So what are your suggestions for fighting global warming. Nobody is shutting of street lighting which is what provides some measure of safety.