Lights Out London
Monday, June 25, 2007 at 08:20AM 
In an effort to raise awareness about global warming, the city of London turned out its lights last week. The voluntary blackout happened on June 21 between 9pm and 10pm and included many notable building such as Tower Bridge, Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. Piccadilly Circus also participated turning out its advertising lights for the first time since World War II. London isn't the first city to do this. They follow in the footsteps of Sydney, Paris and Hong Kong. London estimates that they collectively turned out 2 million lights saving 750 MWh of electricity in 1 hour. I like this idea because turning out lights is such a simple thing, but the effect of seeing such well known attractions in darkness has quite an impact. It would be great to see some more permanent energy savings come out of this.
Green
Reader Comments (4)
What an amazing effort. I have to say that I am impressed by the city's initiative. Nobody really know what the effects of global warming will be or when our daily lives will be affected enough to make serious changes.
too bad they didn't save 1.1 giga watts!
I'm hoping that you are referring to the 1.21 giggawatts required to return us to 1985. Great scott! That would be an good way to affect climate change.
Yeah, regardless of the outcome, this was an impressive demonstration in taking action . I'm particularly pleased that this is coming from England, a country that, in my opinion, generally lags in its environmental concerns.