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Earth Hour dims lights to get people out of the dark
Campaign's goal is to raise awareness of global climate change by turning off power09:17 AM CDT on Saturday, March 29, 2008
Earth Hour goes global tonight.
Julie Winnette, director of Hilltop Montessori School in Denton, said her school is one of two local businesses supporting the global awareness campaign about climate change.
The campaign asks people and companies to turn off their lights at 8 this evening for one hour.
After learning about the event from fellow educator Kristen Wilcox in February, Winnette decided to spread the word via the school’s online discussion group.
“We have a lot of things at our school that tie in with global warning,” Winnette said. “It is exciting when people participate.”
Earth Hour began last year in Sydney, Australia, to encourage people to take action on climate change by asking businesses to turn off their lights and make a statement about the use coal-fired electricity. According to the Earth Hour Web site, 2,100 Sydney businesses and 2.2 million people participated March 21, 2007, leading to a 10.2 percent energy reduction across the city. This year, the goal is to motivate countries and businesses around the world to do the same by turning off nonessential lights at 8 p.m. local time.
“It is not the big changes that are going to preserve the planet — but all the little choices we make every day,” said Wilcox, a high school teacher from New Braunfels.
She said she will spend tonight at a bonfire with members of an affiliate group, Roots and Shoots.
The organizers of the event have collaborated with 25 cities across the globe to promote their cause.
Renowned landmarks such as the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge are set to go dark for the event.
From Denton, Hilltop Montessori School and Peace Kitchen were the only two participating businesses listed, although the Web site claimed to be behind five days in posting.
The Peace Kitchen could not be reached for comment.
In Texas, 30 other organizations and companies signed up. Winnette, seven teachers and 34 students spent most of their day Monday making phone calls and sending e-mail to city officials and members of the Main Street Association requesting the lights on the trees at the Square be turned off for one hour as part of the event.
It was unclear whether the city would participate.
Environmental education is a major part of Hilltop’s curriculum.
Hilltop students take botany and ecology classes. They have built a compost pile and are finishing an outside village built out of bamboo.
Other plans include building a rainwater catchment system that would allow them to recycle water to be used to irrigate landscaping.
Winnette said that right now they do not have the funding to finalize their plans, but will work on their projects little by little.
“I’ve been doing this [warning people about the effects of global warming] since I was young, turning off the lights,” said Brooke Eubanks, a sixth-grader at Hilltop. “And my dad still doesn’t turn off his laptop in his office.”
Other students at the school such as Adam Hineman, another sixth-grader, talked about encouraging more people to drive hybrid vehicles.
“People would probably save a lot of money and a lot of energy … on gasoline, about $200 or $300 a year,” said Adam, “I know my teacher Julie [who drives a Prius] saves a lot of money on gasoline.”
Winnette said she hopes the students’ efforts pay off; at the least, they have learned a lot about the process of getting something accomplished in a short amount of time.
To add to their efforts, students placed a banner outside their fence on Elm Street asking residents to participate.
“It is important to take care of the Earth; if you just let them destroy it, there is nowhere else to go,” said Nora Ripple, another sixth-grader. “I don’t like to clean my room — don’t make me clean up the Earth, too.”
KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com.
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