USC students let residences go dark
Earth Hour encourages students to turn off electricity, conserve energy.
Holly Villamagna
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: News
USC students joined individuals and businesses across the globe by turning off lights in their dorms, apartments and houses from 8 to 9 p.m. Saturday in observance of Earth Hour.
While USC did not officially participate, student groups such as the California Public Interest Research Group encouraged students to take part in the event.
Earth Hour, which promotes global warming awareness, was first held in Sydney, Australia, on March 31, 2007. More than 2 million Australians and 2,100 businesses turned off their lights for an hour.
The success of the event and the media attention it garnered encouraged organizers to expand Earth Hour across the globe in 2008.
Organizers found worldwide support.
Twenty cities, including Manila, Tel Aviv, Dublin, Montreal and Chicago participated Saturday; individuals and businesses in cities that were not official participants also took part.
Jeffrey Sellers, a professor of political science, said to make events such as Earth Hour effective, people must be made aware of the profound consequences of climate change. "Many experts now predict that it will take more catastrophic events to create the kind of consciousness that's needed," he said. "Even in the case of Sydney, keep in mind that Australia was experiencing unprecedented droughts last spring that were already making Sydney residents acutely aware of climate change and its consequences."
Though data has not been released on how many people participated worldwide, organizers said that if the greenhouse reductions achieved in Sydney during Earth Hour 2007 were sustained for a year, it would be the equivalent of taking 48,616 cars off the road.
At USC, CalPIRG took a leading role in encouraging student involvement.
"The event is important because it has the potential to teach a lot of people how easy it is to conserve energy," said Emilio Borghesan, a sophomore majoring in music performance. "I think a lot of students will participate, because turning off your lights for an hour is not that difficult to do."
While USC did not officially participate, student groups such as the California Public Interest Research Group encouraged students to take part in the event.
Earth Hour, which promotes global warming awareness, was first held in Sydney, Australia, on March 31, 2007. More than 2 million Australians and 2,100 businesses turned off their lights for an hour.
The success of the event and the media attention it garnered encouraged organizers to expand Earth Hour across the globe in 2008.
Organizers found worldwide support.
Twenty cities, including Manila, Tel Aviv, Dublin, Montreal and Chicago participated Saturday; individuals and businesses in cities that were not official participants also took part.
Jeffrey Sellers, a professor of political science, said to make events such as Earth Hour effective, people must be made aware of the profound consequences of climate change. "Many experts now predict that it will take more catastrophic events to create the kind of consciousness that's needed," he said. "Even in the case of Sydney, keep in mind that Australia was experiencing unprecedented droughts last spring that were already making Sydney residents acutely aware of climate change and its consequences."
Though data has not been released on how many people participated worldwide, organizers said that if the greenhouse reductions achieved in Sydney during Earth Hour 2007 were sustained for a year, it would be the equivalent of taking 48,616 cars off the road.
At USC, CalPIRG took a leading role in encouraging student involvement.
"The event is important because it has the potential to teach a lot of people how easy it is to conserve energy," said Emilio Borghesan, a sophomore majoring in music performance. "I think a lot of students will participate, because turning off your lights for an hour is not that difficult to do."
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ONTIME
posted 3/31/08 @ 9:16 AM PST
Well that was a sweet thing to do and did no one flush a toilet or perhaps stop breathing for an hour? That would appease the kind of thinking that accompanies this nonsense about saving the earth and an abudance of CO2 global warming, cooling and climate change, all of which exhibit a no tolerance,ignorant arrogance of presentense and possibly the attitude we humans are just to many. (Continued…)
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