More cities across Canada tuning in to turning off
The global movement to step out of the artificial light and into complete darkness – to draw attention to climate change – is snowballing across the country.
Since the launch of the Toronto Star’s countdown to Earth Hour, cities across the country have been signing up. Montreal has announced its intention to join up and Sarnia, Ontario has also been welcomed to the campaign.
“I’ve been a great believer that governments are too slow on moving on these issues,” said Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley. “Here is a way of getting a lot of people involved at no cost.”
Participation is as simple as turning off your lights – between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on March 29.
Bradley pointed out that Earth Hour is not all about sacrifice. “I also think it’s going to have a very positive impact on national unity because Canadians from coast to coast can all shut off Don Cherry all at the same time.”
Among those Canadians are the residents of Halton Region and Mississauga who also officially committed to the project this week.
Mississauga Councillor George Carlson said since the campaign was announced Mayor Hazel McCallion and the 11 councillors were 100 per cent on board.
“In fact some of them wanted to jump in with both feet and do things like turning out the street lights and shutting down recreation centres,” he said.
Their plan is to work with local environmental groups to get the message out and shut down as many lights as possible, including many at City Hall, he said.
“We unanimously supported it, which is a nice change for council.”
Sarnia, as Bradley points out, already has several green initiatives on the go. It has the largest solar farm in North America and one of the largest biofuel plants in the country, he said.
Bradley said if people were really realistic about problems with power shortages and air quality, “I could see an hour every day.”
– by Emily Mathieu of the Toronto Star