All residents and businesses in Alpharetta are being asked to turn off the lights at home and at work for one hour on Saturday, March 28, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. The city has made the request to help raise awareness of the need to conserve energy.
Alpharetta is joining more than 930 cities in 80 countries to promote Earth Hour, a global campaign to raise environmental awareness. Earth Hour is a global campaign coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund that began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, when 2 million people switched off their lights. Worldwide participation increased to more than 50 million people in 2008. The campaign, which hopes to reach out to more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world in 2009, asks individuals, businesses and governments to switch off lights for one hour to create a platform of support for action on climate change.
"No matter your personal views on climate change or environmental issues, I think that everyone recognizes the benefits of conserving energy," states Alpharetta Mayor Arthur Letchas. "By asking our citizens and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour on March 28 we hope to remind everyone of how easy it can be to conserve energy, help to make our community a bit 'greener,' and save a little money along the way."
Only non-essential lighting will be affected, so Earth Hour in Alpharetta will not be a blackout. The target is indoor overhead lights in homes and office buildings. Since the City of Alpharetta and many area office-based businesses already power down the lights in their buildings at the end of each workday, the main effect will be in area homes.
"Even though we are just asking people to turn off their lights, Earth Hour also is a good time to turn off other electronics like computers and televisions," Letchas said. "After the lights go out we hope that families will talk about and pursue small changes in their daily lives to be more energy efficient. We encourage simple but effective energy-saving measures such as installing compact fluorescent light bulbs, which are more efficient and last much longer than traditional incandescent bulbs, choosing energy efficient appliances, making sure their car tires are properly inflated and unplugging electronics when they are not in use."
Labels: Alpharetta, earth hour, Georgia, saturday march 28, turn off lights
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 3:21 PM
