Earth Hour
SMH ArticleWendy Frew, Environment Reporter
December 16, 2006
FOR one hour on one autumn evening next year the lights of Sydney will go out.
The city's nocturnal skyline - the floodlit Opera House, the empty offices ablaze, an illuminated Harbour Bridge - will fade to black at 7.30pm on March 31. Instead, weather permitting, will be a display of stars not seen from the CBD in decades.
That is the ambitious plan launched by the environment group WWF Australia yesterday to send a message to Australians about climate change. It hopes its Earth Hour campaign will demonstrate the connection between the electricity people use in homes and offices and the climate change pollution that coal-fired power stations generate. With the support of Fairfax, publisher of the Herald, the City of Sydney, and the State Government, WWF will ask Sydney households and businesses to turn off their lights for 60 minutes. The city's electricity providers will measure the power saved and the greenhouse gas emissions avoided.
Public transport, street lighting and any lighting that provides security will not be affected.
Sarah Bishop, 22, of Brisbane, will arrive just before the lights go out on March 31 after a nine-week walk from her home city spreading her message to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The chief executive officer of WWF Australia, Greg Bourne, said a darkened Sydney would be a powerful visual statement from Australia's largest city about coal-fired electricity. "Sydney is renowned for being a can-do city, which is why we think Sydney is the best city to lead the way," said Mr Bourne, who hopes to eventually take the campaign global. "It is possible to defeat climate change, but we need to act with a sense of urgency."
The broader Earth Hour campaign aims to cut Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent by March 31, 2008, or the equivalent of taking 75,000 medium-sized cars off the road for a year. WWF chose 5 per cent as a target because it believed it was easily achievable.
For example, in the home, switching electrical appliances off at the power point would cut electricity demand by up to 11 per cent, the Federal Government's National Appliance and Equipment Energy Efficiency Committee says.
WWF estimates that turning off lights when buildings are not occupied and installing energy-efficient lighting could slash the electricity used to light office blocks by as much as 80 per cent.
Ms Bishop hopes to start people talking about climate change through her walk. "I am 22 years old. These statistics [about climate change] represent my future," the Griffith University student said.
She said many of the things people took for granted, including the environment, were at risk from rising global temperatures and wilder weather.
"I won't be able to take my children to see the Great Barrier Reef … this is not the great Australian dream I was brought up to believe in," she said.
Along her journey, Ms Bishop wants to spread the message that small steps taken by a large number of people will help cut the greenhouse gas emissions polluting the world's atmosphere.
The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, urged businesses, workers and residents to support Earth Hour.
"I believe this project is a big step on the way to cutting Sydney's carbon dioxide pollution," Cr Moore said yesterday.
"If Australia's commercial business sector simply turned lights off when buildings were not in use we could save between 2 and 4 million tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions."
An initiative begun last year by City of Sydney, North Sydney and Parramatta City councils and the Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability encourages commercial offices to increase their energy efficiency.
It estimated that if all the offices in those business districts improved their Australian Building Greenhouse Rating by one star it would save $21 million in energy costs and cut more than 189,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
The Premier, Morris Iemma, said everyone had a vital interest in tackling climate change.
"It [the campaign] gives everyone a chance to make a statement that they care about climate change and want action."
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one word: wow..
quite an interesting idea.. if it works.. wouldn't mind being in the city or close to it just to see it happen.. :-D
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