Flip the switch for Earth Hour

By Willa Condy - Trail-Rossland News - March 26, 2008

At 8 p.m. on March 29, the lights will go out not just in Trail, but also around the world.

The idea of Earth Hour has touched people in different countries around the world and the message is simple — turn off the lights for one hour.

Sydney, Australia, started the idea of Earth Hour on March 31 last year and the idea snowballed globally. It began with a question: ‘How do you make a statement on global warming?’

The answer was Earth Hour and involved over 2.2 million people and more that 2,100 businesses that combined to make the whole world take notice.

At 8 p.m. on March 31, Sydney went dark. The lights were turned off on the bridges and in the harbour and weddings were performed by candlelight.

This year, pop artist Nelly Furtado became Canada’s first ambassador for Earth Hour.

She will be performing at a concert in Toronto as part of an Earth Hour event.

The concert is billed as being unplugged.

In Canada, there are more 20,000 people, 50 cities and 1,000 businesses that have signed up to participate in the event.

This year, the concept of Earth Hour has come to Trail with a motion by city council to turn off all unnecessary lights.

Trail joins other B.C. cities such as Fernie, Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Williams Lake and Dawson Creek and many others in turning off the lights.

Toronto and other large cities around the world will be going dark for an hour this year to show how much energy can be saved by just turning off the lights.

If you want to find out more about Earth Hour or to sign up to take part go to www.earthhour.org.

After the event, the question is how to bring the lessons from Earth Hour into every day life? How do we reduce the energy usage and slow down global warming?

One solution to help reduce our energy footprint is to switch to lower voltage light bulbs.

Another is to just turn off the lights when leaving a room.

Washing clothes in cold water instead of warm also helps cut down on the energy usage.

Another easy solution is turn off computers and other electronics when they are not in use.

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Flip the switch for Earth Hour

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