Power down for an hour to tackle warming

INDIVIDUALS AND families are being urged to plan something romantic or unusual for Earth Hour, which will see Ireland join more than 1,000 locations across the planet in turning out the lights. In Dublin, iconic buildings including the Customs House, Government Buildings and Leinster House will go dark for an hour from 8.30pm on Saturday, March 23rd. Lights will be turned off at locations such as the Rock of Cashel, and at Cahir, Ormonde, Trim and Donegal Castles. Even the banks, which were criticised last year for not engaging enough, are expected to dim the lights.

Promoted in Ireland by Change, the national climate change awareness campaign, the aim of Earth Hour is not so much to save energy or money – although it does that too – but to send a signal of support for measures to deal with global warming.

Encouraging participation yesterday, Minister for the Environment John Gormley joined Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment at Eirgrid’s control centre in Ballsbridge, from where the State’s electricity supply is co-ordinated.

According to Eirgrid some 50 megawatts of electricity were saved when the lights went out last year – accounting for about 2,000kg of carbon, according to hasty calculations among reporters and ministerial advisers.

Mr Gormley’s family took part in the last Earth Hour, turning off the power and sitting by lamplight, he revealed. “It was fine, it was grand, there was no problem,” he said, adding there could be a sense of romance about arranging activities such as acoustic guitar sessions, “like Bob Dylan in the early days”.

Laughing, he accepted there may be huge rows with children over “going back to the PlayStation”, but said they could equally sit amicably and “see what it was like in the olden days”.

The Minister said Earth Hour was a “great grass-roots initiative which now takes place in innumerable cities across the globe. I am hoping that as well as enjoying the hour, people would use the opportunity to examine their energy use and make a commitment to change something in their lives, whether it be to use public transport or whatever.”

Mr Lowes urged Earth Hour participants to be creative, noting that in Israel participants staged a rock concert – with power supplied by bicycles.

More than one billion people are expected to participate this year. Details of Irish participation are available on www.change.ie