Today, Saturday 28 March, at 8:30pm (your time) is Earth Hour. Please join me by turning off your non-essential lights for one hour, beginning at 8:30pm. This is an international event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness of climate change. With the participation of nearly 4,000 cities around the world, Earth Hour 2009 will be a “day-long energy-saving marathon stretching through 88 countries and 24 time zones.”
Participating cities include: Beijing, Boston, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, New York, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw. See photos from Earth Hour all around the world on Flickr.
Yes, there will be significant energy savings when landmarks around the world go dark. But in and of itself, Earth Hour it is not meant to “save the planet.” Rather, it is an opportunity to send a message to our political leaders that we, the global citizenry, are concerned about human-induced climate change. The WWF has set a goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. I hope you’ll join us in solidarity by turning off your lights for one hour tonight.
A good list of climate change resources from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Great NPR story about nature photographer James Balog’s “Extreme Ice Survey” project, a photographic record of the tangible effects of global warming on Arctic glaciers
RealClimate blog: Climate science from climate scientists
Environmental news and commentary, Grist.org
One of my favorite books about human-induced climate change is Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert. Succinct, well-researched, and utterly chilling.
