Posted 1/4/07

EARTH HOUR SHOWS HOW SUCH A LITTLE CAN DO A LOT: "WASTE LESS"

Can we have an Earth Hour in Victoria, too?

Sydney icons blacked out (The Age, Melbourne)

Hitting the switch: Sydney's lights shine with their usual brightness last night before the scheduled Earth Hour (above) and are dimmed between 7.30pm and 8.30pm (below) as lights were turned off to reduce electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

April 1, 2007

SYDNEY'S icons switched off last night as the city embraced Earth Hour, an initiative designed to highlight global warming.

The Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Luna Park all went dark.

Australian actor Cate Blanchett described Earth Hour as a beginning. "It's a celebration of our awakening to climate change action," she said.

About 65,000 households and 2000 businesses joined the WWF Australia initiative, which is part of an effort to cut the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent in the next 12 months.

Celebrities and dignitaries, including federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd, attended a function at Mrs Macquarie's Chair and watched the skyline go dark.

Source:  The Age, Melbourne

(Sun-Herald, Sydney)

Emerald city blacks out for brighter future

Bright lights, big city ... Sydney last night, before we pulled the plug.

Photo: Adam Mclean

Terry Smith April 1, 2007

WHERE were you when the lights went out for Earth Hour?

Last night, from 7.30 to 8.30, a city fond of splashing the sky with fireworks and laser displays took delight in quite the opposite.

Framed between an almost full moon and starlight above, and street lights and glow-worms of traffic below, the icons of Sydney's skyline were silhouettes in the soft darkness.

To draw attention to the simple ways we can fight global warming, Sydneysiders were invited to turn off their lights for an hour, launching a ongoing campaign aimed at reducing the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent this year alone.

An initiative of Fairfax Media and World Wildlife Fund Australia, Earth Hour won the support of more than 2000 businesses and government departments, along with some 65,000 households.

At the official launch at Mrs Macquaries Chair, guests watched as 7.30pm ticked over, triggering the man-made blackout.

"It's an hour of active, thoughtful darkness, a celebration of our awakening to climate change action," actor Cate Blanchett said, as candles and torches replaced electric light in hundreds of offices and thousands of homes - in restaurants and hotels, house parties, picnics, on beaches, at a bush dance and even a wedding.

The Harbour Bridge, Anzac Bridge and the Northbridge suspension bridge switched off the floodlights on their arches and pylons, leaving on only road lighting for safety.

The Opera House sails were plunged into darkness for the first time, while at Kings Cross an icon of another kind, the giant Coca-Cola sign, was switched off for the first time since its installation in 1974.

In the CBD, Centrepoint Tower, Luna Park and Sydney Aquarium flicked off the lights, while residents of apartment blocks rallied to the cause. Of an estimated 160,000 people who live in the city's heart, many showed support by hitting the switch.

And the cause was taken up beyond the CBD - to Taronga Zoo and Bondi Beach, across suburban Sydney, to South Coast businesses and homes, and as far off as the national capital, where the lights illuminating the coat of arms on Parliament House were dimmed. But for a scatter of blinking navigation lights, Sydney Harbour dissolved into darkness in what Lord Mayor Clover Moore described as "the New Year's Eve fireworks in reverse".

The lights went out on Fort Denison, leaving only the glow of the lanterns and candles of partygoers on the 150-year-old fort to mark the middle of the harbour.

At The Rocks, Circular Quay, The Domain, Blues Point and other popular vantage points for fireworks spectacles, people gathered to watch Sydney turn on the dark.

While at entertainment and sports venues the show went on, as the show must, theatres and stadiums switched off all but essential outdoor lighting.

City hotels, bars and other venues also dimmed down and some featured strictly acoustic acts.

One restaurant, Will and Toby's at Manly, not only entertained patrons with unplugged jazz but also offered mainly cold dishes on its menu.

Sydney Observatory opened its doors to let stargazers see the night sky over Sydney as they had never seen it before.

Faint stars usually hidden by light pollution became clearly visible.

WWF Australia chief executive Greg Bourne told a recent meeting of Sydney business leaders that Earth Hour was "just the start of what we can do collectively to turn the corner on climate change".

Source: The Sun-Herald (Sydney)

Hour of thoughtful darkness inspires

Waste less ... Cate Blanchett at the launch of Earth Hour in Sydney last night.
 

Photo: Kate Geraghty

Heath Gilmore April 1, 2007

ACTOR Cate Blanchett embraced an hour of "thoughtful darkness" last night as organisers of the inaugural Earth Hour vowed to make it an annual event.

The Academy Award-winning actor was joined by Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore at Earth Hour's official launch.

The formal ceremony, at the Fleet Steps near Mrs Macquarie's Chair, was organised by the World Wildlife Fund Australia and Fairfax Media.

WWF Australia spokesman Andy Ridley said the organisation planned to take the practice of turning off the lights nationwide, and possibly overseas.

Utility companies last night said the event had saved twice as much power as predicted.

EnergyAustralia retail general manager Tim O'Grady said that, before Earth Hour, its experts said an energy saving of about 5 per cent in Sydney's CBD was likely.

"I'm delighted to report that initial readings after the event indicate the final figure is actually close to 10 per cent, which really is quite staggering when you think about it."

Mr O'Grady said an accurate energy reading for the whole of Sydney would follow later today.

Blanchett told guests they and the city should embrace the hour of voluntary, active, thoughtful darkness.

"By our example tonight, hopefully we can inspire our industry, our governments and the international community with a very simple message; waste less. Waste less energy, waste less of the earth's fuel and waste less of the earth's precious resources. If we act now, people will look back in 100 years at the concept of wasting electricity as ridiculous as corsets and floggings."

Sarah Bishop, 22, who walked 1000 kilometres from Brisbane to Sydney to publicise the event, said she was footsore but ecstatic that the message for Earth Hour had reached and touched Australia.

"The blackout was fantastic. I am so happy that the city is celebrating this great event. It is gorgeous to be in the dark."

Fairfax Media group executive editor Phil McLean said Earth Hour was always about connecting the community with an issue of great importance. He said Sydneysiders and the business community had embraced the idea and the results were in the skyline.

"Fairfax Media is committed to Earth Hour, going forward, and the plan is to roll the idea out across Australia and other countries," he said.

Ms Moore said Earth Hour was a call to action. "If cities neglect their environment, they will be the dinosaurs of the future . . . we are committed to the city becoming carbon neutral and for individuals to make a difference," she said.

"Climate change will spell the end of the familiar way of doing things; those ways are profligate, they're polluting, they are ultimately destroying our world.

"It is only when we turn out the lights that we can see the stars."

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a noted absentee from the ceremony. "He never had any intention to go. The invitation was declined through an email," his spokesman said.

His counterpart Mr Garrett said the act of turning off the lights for an hour would ricochet around the country and the world for years. He said Earth Hour signalled a turning point in addressing climate change, and individuals now realised that the answers were "literally in everyone's hands".

Source: The Sun-Herald  (Sydney)

Daniel Dasey  April 1, 2007

HUNDREDS of people yesterday planted cut-out hands in the sand at Bondi Beach in a gesture aimed at supporting the Earth Hour initiative.

Waverley Mayor George Newhouse said the council had asked beachgoers to sign a petition demanding Australia sign the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

They were then asked to plant blue hands as a symbol of protest.

"We understand the need for the Earth Hour campaign," Cr Newhouse said. "If we have an 88-centimetre rise in the median tide over the next 100 years, that will effectively wipe out Bondi Beach. The implications of global warming are incredibly serious for our future generations."

Cr Newhouse said the council had recently given the green light to a concert to highlight the need for action on global warming.

Late yesterday, Earth Hour organisers revealed the number of private individuals taking part in the initiative had hit 60,000, after a late surge.

"We were at about 40,000 on Thursday and it's gone up by 20,000 in just a few days," spokesman Andy Ridley said.

It was hoped thousands more individuals who had not signed up had taken part in Earth Hour.

The Sun-Herald joined Sydney in switching off the lights, with staff using lanterns to produce the newspaper for 60 minutes last night.

Today's paper was printed using green energy. Fairfax Media, the publisher of The Sun-Herald, bought GreenPower credits from Climate Friendly, an alternative energy supplier.

GreenPower is clean, non-polluting energy that generates no greenhouse gas. Climate Friendly supplied power from a wind farm to match our energy consumption.

The Sun-Herald's main newsprint stock is now produced exclusively from recycled fibres and plantation thinnings. No forest timber is used.

Source: The Sun-Herald, Sydney