Please read Vicky’s post below to learn more about Earth Hour.

I just received the press release that Mayor Daley of Chicago has declared his city the official flagship city for Earth Hour-US.  Atlanta, Phoenix and we here in San Francisco have signed on as leading partners!  Here’s the link to Earth Hour US to sign up.

This is going to be amazing!

Last March the city of Sydney plunged itself into darkness to make a statement about climate change.

2.2 million people and 2100 businesses switched their lights off for one hour which, according to the Earth Hour website, reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2%, the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour. Now that’s impressive.

Earth Hour is happening again this year but on a global scale and with those impressive numbers on saving energy how can you not be involved?

We at Make Hay have signed up to support Earth Hour and committed to switching off our lights for one hour at 8pm on 29th March. You can get involved too by visiting the WWF’s Earth Hour website and giving your support.

This ties in a little with some of my previous posts about energy waste through unnecessary lighting and Earth Hour goes to show just how unnecessary it is.

Recently Nottingham City Council held an event called Nottingham Light Night which, yes you guessed it, meant wasting more electricity on pointless lighting. Sometimes I wonder whether they’ve actually heard about what’s happening to the planet but that’s a whole other topic I could rant on about forverer.

You might ask what the point is of just switching off for a once-a-year event, its what you do every day that counts and I would totally agree. However, I can’t help being inspired when people decide to put their heads together and demonstrate how they feel about an important issue. An event like this also shows that a positive message can spread far and wide and we all have the ability to effect change.

Watch the Earth Hour video and you’ll see what I mean…

Visit www.earthhour.org

It’s been a little while since I complained about lighting outside buildings (and inside for that matter) so I thought it was about time I had another moan.

The government has given their response to a petition on floodlighting I signed a while ago. The petition requested a ban on uneccessary floodlighting and asked the government to lead by example and reduce the lighting on their own buildings.

You can read the whole response at the 10 Downing Street e-petition site but the straight answer is that they do not intend to bring in a policy which bans floodlighting.

They say that “good practice” is to use various types of lower energy lighting but importantly they do not suggest making even this the law. Why not???

My favourite statement throughout their whole response is “Effects of reducing lighting levels or turning lights off vary from case to case”. Surely reducing lighting levels or turning lights off will reduce energy in every case!

They then state that safety should be a consideration (and balanced against financial and environmental cost) and I wouldn’t argue with that. So, let’s not necessarily have a blanket policy to ban floodlighting altogether but consider the use of it more carefully – I’m sure that alone would cause great reduction in energy waste and light pollution.

I strongly feel that this is an issue which shouldn’t be brushed off in the way it was in this government response. So, if you feel that light pollution needs to be tackled join me in signing a couple more petitions:

Make it illegal to leave lighting and electrical devices on in any establishment whilst the building is vacant or outside of working hours

Save energy consumption by reducing streetlight usage

Switching off a light is one of the easiest things to do so why is it so difficult to make it happen?

After my last two posts about shop lighting and other commercial electricals being left on at night time (‘And let there be less light’ & ‘And the rant goes on…’) Henriette suggested that we take this further and form something official to encourage businesses to waste less energy and cause less light pollution.

Of course, its not just shop lighting. Poorly directed street lighting and unnecessarily bright floodlights and security lighting are also culprits.

It struck me that we’re not the only ones bugged by this issue. We received comments from GGG readers and editors saying that they would join the ‘shop light fight’ and our friends over at ‘All things Eco’ have already included it on their Campaigns page!

Taking a further look on the internet I’ve found that others are making the same points and asking the same questions.

The Good Human asks “Why in the world do businesses leave their lights on?”

Darren Baskill writes an excellent article on the BBC website – ‘Lighting is still in the Dark Age’ .

Carry out a search on Google for ‘Light Pollution’ and you will find stargazers, environmentalists, campaigners and health experts telling us that light pollution:

• disrupts wildlife
• is damaging to human health
• wastes electricity (and therefore increases carbon emissions) and;
• impedes our view of the night sky

They also ask:

• Why don’t governments bring in more stringent laws about unneccessary lighting?
• If some countries can bring in measures (e.g. to dim lights after midnight) then why can’t others?
• Why is inefficient lighting still made available in diy stores?

In my view the laws in the UK (and other countries) need to be stricter on when and how lighting is used, particularly with regard to commercial use on shop fronts.

So, what can we do? Here’s a few ideas for GGG editors and readers:

1. Contact your favourite green blogs and ask them if they will mention light pollution in one of their upcoming posts. I’m a firm believer in there being power in numbers – Imagine how far spread this message could become if even a few of the many green bloggers talked about light pollution all at the same time!

2. Write to your local MP, tell them about your concerns and ask them to raise this issue in parliament.

3. Petition the PM. There are currently around 300 petitions relating to light pollution on the 10 Downing Street petition site (UK). It only takes a few moments to add your name and tell the PM how you feel about this issue. If anyone can tell us about similar petitions in countries other than the UK please let us know and we’ll post them up here.

4. Express your interest. If you want to join the shop light fight or indeed have already taken action then please tell us! We can provide updates about what you have been doing and continue this campaign with your support.

Thank you x

Last week I wrote a post about the wasteful use of lighting by shops at night time – ‘And let there be less light‘.

As if I wasn’t irritated enough by the fact that the shops in my local area (and everywhere else in the UK) leave their signage, security and indoor lights burning away all night I now have a new complaint!

Sitting outside our local pub the other night (I don’t spend every evening at the pub by the way – honest!) I noticed that one of the lighting culprits now has a large television in their window which plays a repeating movie, showing off its marvelous wares. The amusing things is that it’s so marvelous that I can’t event remember what that shop sells – effective marketing eh?

Ahhhh, I feel much better for getting that off my chest.

Signed – Outraged of Daybrook!

On one of the very few warm evenings we had a couple of weeks ago my partner and I decided to go for a cold beer and relax outside at a local pub. Looking around at the nearby shops I saw that most of them had left some kind of lighting on to illuminate their signage, products or the whole of the inside or outside of the building.

Now, this is something that even as a child I thought was very wasteful, particularly as my parents were always really keen on switching off lights, radios, the TV etc when we weren’t using them. I remember once asking my dad why shopkeepers left all their lights on at night and he said “So if they get burgled you can see the burglar from the outside”. Of course he was teasing me and the real reason is advertising (I guess with an element of security too).

I was wondering, if those shopkeepers switched off the lights would they save enough money each year to spend on an alternative kind of marketing? More importantly what cost does this mean to the planet and how much energy could they save?

If like me you live near a city you will see very few stars because of light pollution, but this is just one of the less adverse effects of lighting up the sky. Wildlife is affected by this artificial illumination of the night time, it interferes with the natural behaviours of birds and the habits of plants and trees. At best its a nuisance and at worst it is an energy user contributing to climate change.

Not only were many of the shops near to our local pub lit up brightly but none of them seemed to be using low energy bulbs and at this time of year it doesn’t actually get dark until about 9pm. So from shop closing time at 5pm until 9pm those lights are burning away for absolutely no reason!

According to the Environment Agency England is more brightly lit than any other European country after the Netherlands. It seems however that other countries are making steps towards reducing this unneccesary waste. In June 2006 the mayor of Madrid signed a law ordering that all neon lights were switched off within a year and in Nov 2005 Rome began to lower street and shop sign lighting.*

The Environment Agency also tell us that “Light pollution may be regarded as a ‘nuisance’ under common law, and is being added to the list of statutory nuisances in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Local authorities and people affected by light trespass will be able to take action, though there are specific exemptions for some transport and sports facilities.”

Is it just me or does that seem a little weak? Shouldn’t the law consider light pollution as something which will dangerously affect all of us rather than simply as a ‘nuisance’ to those who take the time to report it? Does that mean that if a shop or street light isn’t shining directly into my bedroom window then I have no right to complain about the wider problems that this misuse of light is causing?

I’d love to hear your views, rants or queries on this topic. Please get in touch or leave a comment.

Also, sign the petition asking the PM to ban floodlighting of buildings at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Floodlighting/

* Source – The Energy Toolbox website of Victoria, Australia