London is staging a one hour lights out on 21st June 9pm. Capital Radio has got behind this and is urging normal londoners to follow the lead taken by public lighting: "Between 9pm and 10pm on June 21, many famous landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Canary Wharf, the BT Tower and at least one government department, will execute the black-out to raise awareness of global warming. London's three million households will be urged to switch off their non-essential lights and appliances in what organisers hope will be the first in a series of events that will spread to cities across the country. The event is based on Earth Hour, a similar, hour-long mass switch-off last year in Sydney that involved 65,000 households and 2000 businesses, including the Opera House, the harbour bridge and Luna Park. Energy consumption fell by 10.2 per cent." sourcelightsoutlondon site via hugg
2 comments:
Hey John --
I often look at the beautiful New York skyline and think it's wasteful but wonder to what extent lights provide some sort of social deterrent.
If it became policy that lights in major cities in the world would be shut off between for example 1-2, what would happen? Would we have security failures? Would we have the benefit of forcing late-night workers to finish earlier? Would everyone sleep better? Would we reduce the social anxiety associated with cities?
It seems like there are a lot of potential implications for society beyond the energy savings advertised. What social norms would need to change to make these events policy? To make them Greenormal?
interesting questions
I am assuming that at 9pm it will still be quite light, I doubt dark unlit cities will be entirely friendly places
whether we do need to light monuments & empty offices at those times is another matter?
the sky also looks quite nice at night when not obscured by too much city light pollution?
:J
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