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Turn off the lights and join Earth Hour

UMW News Bureau

Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 p.m. is Earth Hour. Montana Western is joining cities around the world in turning off the lights and all other unnecessary electronics to give the earth a break and encourage awareness about climate change. By Ashley Makowski

The University of Montana Western Terre Verde Club is asking southwest Montana to turn off their lights on Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 p.m. in commemoration of Earth Hour.

The president of the Dillon City Council has endorsed the event, the only of its kind in Montana.

Earth Hour is an annual international event created by The World Wildlife Fund that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

Dillon joins cities from Atlanta to Los Angeles to Amman to Warsaw going dark for one hour. City skylines will go dark for one hour as individuals, businesses, government buildings, schools and major landmarks turn off non-essential lighting in what will be the largest climate event in history.

The movement began in Australia in 2008 when over 50 million people in over 1000 cities turned their lights off. Major landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House, the Coliseum in Rome, Stockholm’s Royal Castle, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco were all dark for one hour. Google turned its homepage black for an entire day in tribute.

For this year’s event, 2,398 cities across 83 countries have committed to turning out their lights for Earth Hour 2009. The list of participating cities in the US includes Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville with more signing up every day.

The Montana Western Terre Verde Club invites you to not only turn off all unnecessary lighting but other electrical appliances for one hour to show support to demand action for climate change.

To provide educational entertainment with minimal electricity, the Terre Verde club is sponsoring a showing of the PBS movie “Heat” in the Great Room of the Swysgood Technology Center on the UMW campus. Refreshments will be provided.

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