Let There Be Dark

LUCAS OLENIUK/TORONTO STAR

TOP: Toronto skyline, as seen at 8:27 p.m. on March 29, 2008. BOTTOM: Toronto skyline, as seen at 8:19 p.m. on March 26, 2008.


Participating in the World Wide Earth Hour, a campaign to bring awareness to the Climate Change brought by man, Toronto went Dark for an Hour or So and Hit the Target..This is the first year of its participation of the Earth Hour, which Started in Christchurch, New Zealand and Suva, Fiji 17 hours ago and will Culminate in Vancouver and San Francisco where the Lights are to go out at the Golden Bridge.

Just before 9 o’clock, the meter at the Toronto Hydro control centre hit a low of 2,738 megawatts - 5 per cent below the demand an hour earlier and about 8.7 per cent less than a typical late March Saturday night

Across the downtown, while most street-level storefront signs remained on, business logos atop high-rise office towers and hotels were dark, and lights blinked out in many condo windows.

Staff at the Sheraton Centre hotel apologized because technical problems delayed their participation, but they vowed to keep the lights out until 10 o’clock as compensation.

In Sydney, the event appeared to be at least as popular as last year, when 2.2 million people took part and electricity consumption fell by 10.2 per cent. This time, lights at the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge were switched off and Australians held candle-lit beach parties, played poker by candle light and floated candles down rivers.

Australian energy officials said electricity consumption was down by 1,000 megawatts across the country, the equivalent of shutting down two large generating stations.

In Bangkok Thailand, some of the city’s business districts, shopping malls and billboards went dark, although streetlights stayed on. One major hotel invited guests to dine by candlelight and reported brisk business.

But for some reason or another, some countries and cities decided not to participate:

France, Germany, Spain and European Union institutions - planned nothing to mark Earth Hour.

That didn’t dismay organizers, who said there’s a powerful message in the fact that the usual powerhouse countries aren’t leading the way, and that even in wealthy places like Canada it’s very much a grassroots phenomenon.

“I’m just beginning to get a sense that this is a way of giving voice to a lot of people who don’t normally have a voice,” Andy Ridley, of WWF in Sydney, said a day before the event.

For details of the articles and Videos of the Earth Hour, it is here at the Toronto Star

The Earth Hour - March 29, Saturday 8 to 9 PM ...count yourself in..

SUN HERALD FILE PHOTOS


Noor Javed Jan. 20, 2008

On March 31, 2007 at exactly 7:30 p.m., Sydney Harbour was cast into darkness. Citizens doused their lights, faded to green and embraced a bold new idea.


From the Star, through Jagoda S. Pike, its Publisher - is issuing a Challenge - to ourselves and to our readers - to commit ourselves to One Hour of Darkness.

The date, March 29, time between 8:00 to 9:00 PM. By going dark for One Hour, not only that we will reduce the Electricity consumption, but we will be making a statement, giving a warning to Sluggish Governments and Industries that the time for Action is NOW..

The movement started in Sydney last year and this year event will again start at Sydney and there will be more cities participating beyond the Australian continent..Sydney is in again, and the event, so far, has expanded within Australia to include Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Gold Coast and Melbourne, and beyond the island continent to Toronto; Chicago; Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel; Manila, Philippines; Suva, Fiji; Christchurch, New Zealand; and four Danish cities – Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg. At least three more – Bangkok, Singapore and Shanghai – are likely to participate. Others are welcome.

A similar event, Lights out America will be held in additional U.S. locations..


It may seem insignificant to turn out the lights in your dwelling for an hour on a Saturday night, what with millions of cars, factories spewing poisonous gases into the air it is like a solitary tiny ant trying to halt the juggernaut of destructive climate change..but one multiplied by many is a force that may move the government to address the issues...

Star Photographer Lucas Oleniuk captures the issue of Global Warning by creating a video from Still Images..20,000 still images taken in 20 days in a video that truly tells the Story Airsickness: An Industrial Devolution watch it and lights out on March 29 to make a statement...

For the Jagoda S. Pike, Star Publisher message Take the Earth Hour Challenge

Star Photo...

Police closed both directions of Hwy 400 after a blinding whiteouts which reduced visibility resulted in 100s of collisions. It was re-opened in time for Monday Rush..

It was cold, but sunny, perfectly sunny day, then suddenly a blinding wind whipped whiteout and Highway 400, the gateway to Northern Ontario became a wrecking yard with more than 100 cars involved in Chain-Reaction collisions..

Motorists told tales of being in sunshine one moment and enveloped in swirling snow the next.

For a moment, consider yourself in a whiteout, what would you do? Keep driving ahead and Rear End someone in Front of YOU? Stop where you are and wait someone rear end YOU?

Luckily with hundreds of cars and truck involved, police reported no fatalities and mostly Minor Injuries and emergency vehicles including Air Ambulances were on the scene shortly to transport the injured..The Highway was closed until cleared with all vehicles and opened in time for Monday Rush Hour..

For details of the whiteouts take a look here..