Earth Hour 2010 gets underway in Australia, Pacific islands

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

Earth Hour 2010 gets underway in Australia, Pacific islands 13 mins ago

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House temporarily went dark on Saturday as nations across the western Pacific turned out the lights for Earth Hour 2010 to call for action on climate change.

The symbolic one-hour switch-off, first held in Sydney in 2007, has become an annual global event and organizers World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said they expect this year's to be the biggest so far.

The remote Chatham Islands was the first of more than 100 nations and territories to turn off the power at 8.30 p.m. local time, in a rolling event around the globe that ends just across the International Dateline in Samoa 24 hours later.

Event co-founder Andy Ridley told Reuters that 126 countries and territories had so far signed up, with thousands of special events scheduled, including a lights-out party on Sydney's northern beaches and an Earth Hour 'speed dating' contest.

From a boat on Sydney harbour, one witness said the city was already in darkness hours before the event, low clouds and a near full-moon adding an eerie feeling to the nation's largest city.

In the Chatham Islands, diesel generators that supply power locally were switched off. Other early participants included New Zealand, Fiji and Tuvalu, where driving was halted temporarily.

The number of participants is significantly up on 2009, when 88 countries and territories and more than 4,000 towns and cities took part. Organizers have estimated between 500 million and 700 million people were involved last year.

[Dallas59]

That and the dish washer...and Christmas Lights, Halloween lights....

[jmaroneps37]

When is this in Eastern time? I want to run every appliance in the house during that hour.

[scoobysnak71]

8:30 PM, no matter where you are. When your clock says >8:30< tonight, its time.

[mollynme]

Every street in my city is well lighted and just about every house has its own light stand. Luckily, we have a city council and Safety Manager who would never be stupid enough to try to black us out.
Our neighbor city (Boulder) is planning on turning off all "non-essential" lights. Wonder if their crime rate will go up tonight?

[scoobysnak71]

>”I got their ‘Earth Hour’ right >>>>> HERE <<<<< !!!!”

Yup. While you are pumping an extraordinary amount of CO2 into the air, please join me in chill’n to some great music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukMGRICG85w&FORM=VIRE6

[PIF]

That’s not fair - NK has Earth Hour every night...

[magslinger]

Where did I put that landing light?

[Stosh]

And the best thing about “Earth Hour” is that it’s a totally pointless exercise:

http://bigjournalism.com/rtrzupek/2010/03/17/the-stupidity-futilitiy-and-fantasy-of-earth-hour/

[newfreep]

Yet the “intellectual liberal elites” want to experience the inconvenience....and then quickly return to their lifestyle of enjoying free-market capitalist pleasures. Hypocrites all!

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore ! Force of Darkness “Earth Hour” Challenged by Power of Light “Human Achievement Hour”

CEI Announces 2nd Annual Celebration of Human Achievement

Washington, D.C., March 19, 2010—The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a leading free-market think tank, will celebrate the Second Annual “Human Achievement Hour” between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on Saturday, March 27, 2010. The one-hour celebration coincides with “Earth Hour,” an hour in which governments, individuals, and corporations will dim or shut off lights to symbolically renounce the environmental impacts of modern technology.

“Earth Hour’s creators suggest that human inventions and technology are a problem, but we see the ability to create and innovate as the ultimate resource,” says Human Achievement Hour founder and CEI Policy Analyst Michelle Minton. “Environmental challenges will not be solved by turning off our lights and symbolically hiding in the dark,” Minton added. “If anything, we should be looking to technology and innovation to help solve environmental problems.”

Just like last year, countless individuals, organizations, agencies and businesses will be celebrating Human Achievement Hour without even realizing it. Just by not shutting down their lights, operations and stores, they will be acknowledging that productive effort and the pursuit of happiness are a better alternative than sitting in the dark.

In addition to the observance of Human Achievement Hour, wherever people may find themselves around the world, CEI will be hosting a happy hour event outside of Washington, D.C.

Human Achievement Happy Hour
Saturday, March 27, 2010
7:30pm-10:00pm

Rira Irish Pub and Restaurant
2915 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia
703-248-9888

MORE RESOURCES: Watch the video “Celebrate Human Achievement Hour,” follow us on Twitter and join the Facebook group.

###

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.

[Pablo64]

Excellent link. Thanks for posting it.

[DuncanWaring]

Or, if you’ve got a really old clock, the big hand will be on the “6” and the little hand will be between the “8” and the “9”. ;-)

[ken21]

last year i turned every light on in the house and opened the drapes.

meanwhile, i watched most of the houses across the valley turn off their lights.

my wife and i are doing the same tonight.

[myknowledge]

The Greenies just cannot keep them selves from shooting their own toes off for the sake of Mother Earth.

Let me tell you why these watermelons worship this pagan earth goddess.

Occultists like today's watermelons, have worshiped this pagan earth goddess named Gaia for centuries (I guess the Middle Ages).

This 'mother earth' pagan worship is tied to the New Age movement, in which it bears great similarities to the ideologies espoused by the Nazis.

They share the one same insidious goal: A one world order.

[Piquaboy]

I plan on doing the same thing.

[RightField]

... I might just leave the refrigerator door open for a while, too ...

[RightField]

...have I forgotten anything?

It might be a good time to do maintenance on the garage door opener. Get the silicone lubricant, then up and down ... up and down. So, it addition to showing your neighbors all your lights, they will be able to HEAR power being consumed. Just a thought.

[madison10]

Ditto.

[PIF]

“Yet the “intellectual liberal elites” want to experience the inconvenience....”

Not sure that is true ... back when, the mass migration of Califorinia elites was underway to the hinterlands, I happened to live in a quiet fishing town... which they, of course, proceed to make into a tourist mecca.

One of their first acts on taking over the city council was to declare that all lights within town limits be extinguished after 10 PM — they wanted to enjoy looking at the stars -—

ironically the very stars they are currently hell bent on preventing the rest of us ever reaching -— maybe they imagine if we got there, we’d turn them off or something...

[GATOR NAVY]

I’m too cheap to turn on anything extra but I sure as hell won’t be turning anything off that is normally on.