Counting Down to Earth Hour

Here’s hoping you will find yourself in the
dark on March 27, 2010 between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.

Three years ago in Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million residents and 2,100 businesses turned off the lights in the very first Earth Hour, and by this action made a bold statement about their concern for climate change.

The people of Sydney set an example that has inspired the rest of the world.

The movement is now a global one, and participation has swelled. Nearly one billion people turned out for Earth Hour 2009 – involving 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents. Earth Hour is the largest climate event in history.

Last year, 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch.  These iconic landmarks from the United States joined with others around the world that went dark for Earth Hour, sending a powerful, visual message demanding action on climate change:
•  Empire State Building
•  Brooklyn Bridge
•  Broadway Theater Marquees
•  Las Vegas Strip
•  United Nations Headquarters
•  Golden Gate Bridge
•  Seattle’s Space Needle
•  Church of Latter-Day Saints Temple
•  Gateway Arch in St. Louis

This year, perhaps, landmarks in your city will be on the list.

WWF (the World Wildlife Fund) is the official sponsor of the event. Go to the Earth Hour website, check out the tools, and see who in your community has already joined the movement. There is still time for you to to lobby for participation by your city government, and to commit your organization, faith community, or place of business to participation in the event. The site has videos of Earth Hour 2009, ideas for events, and all the tools and press releases you might need for spreading the word.

I notice that in New Haven, IKEA has signed on, meaning their familiar presence, adjacent to I-95, will lie in darkness for one hour on Saturday night, March 27. People will notice, and, one would hope, be interested enough to find out why.

WWF has set a goal of over one billion people voting with their light switches on March 27.

Will you be among them?

Many Christians choose to give up something during this season of Lent. Why not consider giving up electricity for one hour on a Saturday night?

If you plan it right, you might even find yourself having some fun in the warm glow of candlelight. Not a bad way to make a statement.

A new day. A new year. A new decade.

Last week columnist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman dubbed the past decade the “Big Zero” and declined to bid it a fond farewell. Few would dispute that it was not the best decade. For many of us last year was not the best of years. But I look back at 2009 and note some hopeful signs.

We have a new president. His words are taken seriously by the citizens of the world.

On October 24, people in nearly 200 nations united to call for action on climate change in Copenhagen, the result of an amazing organizing effort by visionary Bill McKibben and his group 350.org. The day’s activities made headlines around the globe, including the front page of the New York Times. No binding treaty was signed in Copenhagen in December, but our president and other world leaders came together to acknowledge the existence of global warming and to announce some dramatic steps to stem the rise of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, including establishment of a $100 billion climate fund to address the climate change needs of developing nations.

At home in the US, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act extended many consumer tax incentives originally introduced in 2005, including home energy efficiency improvement tax credits. And many, including my family, took advantage of them. We sealed leaks with rope caulk and installed two storm doors. Friends did windows. The credits last through the end of 2010, so adding insulation will probably be up next. I am hoping the makers of the very Green denim insulation will offer a choice with a higher R value.

All over the country people swapped incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents. Federal rules will be phasing out the incandescent energy hogs between 2012 and 2014, so why wait for the inevitable when we can all be saving energy? Even more efficient ways of home lighting may soon be in our future.

Even in the midst of this recession, in many ways life in the City of New Haven is looking up. With the help of Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative and the hard work of spirited volunteers, parks continued to be reclaimed, new ones continued to pop up, and trees were planted.

There were many breakthroughs on the transportation front. You can now walk or ride your bike all the way from downtown New Haven to Cheshire on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail (over 14 miles). The bike racks on the city buses are being used with greater frequency. The zip car came to town. After decades of talk, commuter rail service between New Haven and Springfield, MA (with connecting service to Bradley International Airport) has been included in the CT DOT Master Transportation Plan.

And single stream recycling should be instituted in all New Haven neighborhoods by the end of the Spring.

With so much good on the horizon, “Let’s all pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work”* in this new year.

I spent the first day of 2010 in the organizing mode — sorting, cleaning, getting ready. I made soup. My New Year’s resolution — to waste less and do more. I’ll keep you posted on how that does.

Happy new decade!

*President Barack Obama, Inaugural address, January 20, 2009

October 24, 2009 – The International Day of Climate Action

I last blogged about what I would be doing on October 24. Just go to 350.org to see the amazing array of snapshots from this day of global action. People around the world — in 181 countries — hosted 5200 events.

Why all this effort? To call attention to a very big problem. Scientists say that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. And we are now at 390. The day’s events were designed to send a message to delegates to next month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen that we need to get CO2 back to 350 ppm. The activities of this global movement were a huge story around the planet and made the front page of many newspapers, including the New York Times.

Activists in New Haven, Connecticut struggled with intermittent rain and a blustery wind. But two of us rang the bell of United Church at 3:50 pm, while a stalwart group formed the number 350 on the historic New Haven Green, a site for political actions since the city’s early days.

We also handed out a short list of easy steps for mitigating climate change. Please give them a try.