If you had your lights on between 8 and 9pm on 29th March, you probably didn't realise / care that it was Earth Hour, a worldwide version of San Francisco's Lights Out event designed to raise awareness of climate change. Earth Hour is now in its second year, with many cities around the world participating in the event. Although Glasgow didn't officialy participate city in the event, many households and businesses in the city switched their power off for one hour during the day. To the confusion of many (including my mum), Google UK turned their lights out for the day by sporting a fetching black background:
I wonder if they turned off any of their 10,000+ server farm during the event? I doubt it... but I'm sure a black background to their website was just as effective. Although cities like Bangkok reduced usage by over 70 megawatts (40 tonnes of CO2), the purpose of the event isn't to make a long term difference against climate change, but to raise people's awareness and demonstrate how everyone can contribute to reducing emissions. I went to an Earth Hour party at Sean's to celebrate the event. The group photo below represents the end of the hour of darkness and features Stuart, Steven, Andrew, Nick, Sean Batty, Graham, Owen, Radek, Sabrina, Alan and Colin:
If you didn't get involved this year, make sure you do it next time! Also, Glasgow City Council, get the city registered!
