An event called Earth Hour 2008 took place last Saturday, starting at 8 pm in Australia, and literally spreading around the globe. Sponsored by the environmental group World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour's goal was to get governments, businesses, and households to use candle power for just one 60 minute span as a way of cutting back on greenhouse gases. 100 million participants was the target number of people turning off lights and
non-essential electronic gear.
Although this was a global event, two large American cities, namely, San Francisco and Chicago stood out in their efforts to embrace Earth Hour's potential for bringing awareness to global warming. The Golden Gate Bridge went dark for the hour, and so did more than 200 buildings in downtown Chicago.
So how big was Earth Hour's impact in New York City? Not very, I'm afraid. The event received minimal local news coverage. The only way I heard anything about it was through email: a press release about a national real estate company's participation, and a message about the occasion from a friend. It certainly wouldn't be easy for a city like the Big Apple to go dark, due to the amount of commerce and travel that streams steadily through it. Some kind of attempt, however, should have been made to inform the city's residents. Mayor Bloomberg's efforts to create a green city deserve the greatest commendation, which makes the fact that Earth Hour wasn't placed on this agenda an even bigger mystery.
Perhaps more can be made of it in 2009. And in the name of full disclosure, our home went dark on Saturday at 8 pm and stayed that way until 9 pm. Eating by candlelight is still a wonderful thing.
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