brianac
March 27th, 2009, 08:44 PM
March 27, 2009, 5:26 pm
An Hour to Help Save the Earth
By Sewell Chan (http://wirednewyork.com/author/sewell-chan/)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/03/27/nyregion/nightskyline-480.jpgAndrew Henderson for The New York Times
The night skyline, as seen from the Empire State Building last October, will shine a bit less brightly for one hour on Saturday evening.
For one hour on Saturday evening, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., exterior lights will shut off at a score of New York City landmarks (http://www.earthhourus.org/newyork/participants.php), including the Empire State Building, the New York Public Library, the United Nations headquarters, City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. But New Yorkers need not worry — we hope — about a recurrence of the citywide blackouts of 1965, 1977 and 2003.
The lights are being shut off intentionally as part of a worldwide observance of Earth Hour (http://www.earthhour.org/), an event that began in 2007 in Sydney and was organized by the Australia chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (http://www.worldwildlife.org/).
As our colleagues at the Green Inc. (http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/) blog noted earlier this week (http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/saving-energy- for-an-hour/), the event will start in Fiji and then roll around the globe by time zone throughout the day. Cities slated to participate include Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw.
“This will be a pivotal year in the future of our planet as we look to Congress, President Obama and global leaders to take immediate and decisive action on climate change,” Carter Roberts, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. “Having New York City go dark for Earth Hour will send a powerful message to the world that the U.S. is ready to assume a leadership position in solving one of the most serious challenges facing our planet today. By turning out the lights, the people of New York City will be casting a vote in support of the future of the Earth.”
The actor Edward Norton (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/edward_norton/index.html) is the official ambassador for Earth Hour 2009.
While most of the New York sites participating in Earth Hour this year are well-known landmarks, others are more unexpected. The Thomson Reuters, Nasdaq, Chase and Coca-Cola signs in Times Square will be dimmed. Other participants include Angels & Kings (http://www.angelsandkings.com/nyc/#/calendar/upcoming/), the East Village nightclub opened in 2007 by the musician Pete Wentz (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/arts/music/07fall.html), and several major building developers and investors, including Tishman Speyer Properties (http://www.tishmanspeyer.com/), Silverstein Properties (http://www.silversteinproperties.com/) and Monday Properties (http://www.mondayre.com/).
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/an-hour-to-help-save-the-earth/
Copyright 2009 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
An Hour to Help Save the Earth
By Sewell Chan (http://wirednewyork.com/author/sewell-chan/)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/03/27/nyregion/nightskyline-480.jpgAndrew Henderson for The New York Times
The night skyline, as seen from the Empire State Building last October, will shine a bit less brightly for one hour on Saturday evening.
For one hour on Saturday evening, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., exterior lights will shut off at a score of New York City landmarks (http://www.earthhourus.org/newyork/participants.php), including the Empire State Building, the New York Public Library, the United Nations headquarters, City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. But New Yorkers need not worry — we hope — about a recurrence of the citywide blackouts of 1965, 1977 and 2003.
The lights are being shut off intentionally as part of a worldwide observance of Earth Hour (http://www.earthhour.org/), an event that began in 2007 in Sydney and was organized by the Australia chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (http://www.worldwildlife.org/).
As our colleagues at the Green Inc. (http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/) blog noted earlier this week (http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/saving-energy- for-an-hour/), the event will start in Fiji and then roll around the globe by time zone throughout the day. Cities slated to participate include Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw.
“This will be a pivotal year in the future of our planet as we look to Congress, President Obama and global leaders to take immediate and decisive action on climate change,” Carter Roberts, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. “Having New York City go dark for Earth Hour will send a powerful message to the world that the U.S. is ready to assume a leadership position in solving one of the most serious challenges facing our planet today. By turning out the lights, the people of New York City will be casting a vote in support of the future of the Earth.”
The actor Edward Norton (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/edward_norton/index.html) is the official ambassador for Earth Hour 2009.
While most of the New York sites participating in Earth Hour this year are well-known landmarks, others are more unexpected. The Thomson Reuters, Nasdaq, Chase and Coca-Cola signs in Times Square will be dimmed. Other participants include Angels & Kings (http://www.angelsandkings.com/nyc/#/calendar/upcoming/), the East Village nightclub opened in 2007 by the musician Pete Wentz (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/arts/music/07fall.html), and several major building developers and investors, including Tishman Speyer Properties (http://www.tishmanspeyer.com/), Silverstein Properties (http://www.silversteinproperties.com/) and Monday Properties (http://www.mondayre.com/).
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/an-hour-to-help-save-the-earth/
Copyright 2009 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)