SYDNEY, Australia(GP)
The Sydney Opera House's gleaming white-shelled roof was darkened Saturday night along with the rest of Australia's largest city, which switched off the lights to register concern about global warming and the decline in wide spread looting.
(Looters and police practicing for the big night)
The arch of Sydney's other iconic structure, the harbor bridge, was also blacked out, along with dozens of skyscrapers and countless homes in the 4 million-strong city, in an hour-long gesture organizers said they hoped would be adopted as an annual event by cities around the world.
(Above; Sydney skyline)
Mayor Clover Moore, whose officials shut down all nonessential lights on city-owned buildings, said Sydney was "asking people to think about what action they can take to fight global warming, and promote a crime day in major cities world wide."
Restaurants throughout the city held candlelit dinners, families gathered in public places, and muggers came out in full force, to take part in a countdown to lights out, sending up a cheer as lights started blinking off at 7:30 p.m.
Buildings went dark one by one.
(Above; Sydney skyline when lights went out)
Organizers hope Saturday's event _ which about 2,000 businesses and more than 60,000 individuals signed up for online _ will get people to think about regularly switching off nonessential lights, powering down computers and other simple measures they say could cut Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent this year.
The amount of power saved by Saturday's event was not immediately known. But Greg Bourne, chief executive of World Wildlife Fund Australia and one of the architects of the event, said Sydney's power supplier Energy Australia had estimated it could be 5 percent of normal usage on a night of similar conditions.
"It's absolutely fantastic, there's a mood of enthusiasm and hopefulness and action," Bourne said. "I have never seen Sydney's skyline look so dark. This is such an amazingly fruitless gesture, much like that game people play in America, what’s it called? Oh yes bipartisan politics."
Research by the University of New South Wales published last week found Sydney residents have bad energy conservation habits, often leaving heaters and air conditioners running in empty rooms as well as using way too many jeeps to hunt koala bears.
(above; angry koala bear)
Leaked excerpts published in Australian media last week said average temperatures in the country could rise 6.7 degrees by 2080, making worse wildfires, floods, drought and storms. The Great Barrier Reef is already under threat from increased coral bleaching, the report says. Clorox Bleach executives are denying any involvment.
Australia, a nation of around 21 million people, is ranked as the world's worst greenhouse gas emitter per capita, largely because of its heavy reliance on coal-fired power stations, and also because there are some crazy Mf’ers there, who wontonly eat some weird sh*t, who knows what kind of gas that lets out!
Due to Al Gore’s medaling, global warming has emerged this year as a mainstream hip and trendy political issue in Australia, and the world over, and Prime Minister John Howard's government has announced initiatives such as the phased withdrawal from sale of energy-inefficient incandescent bulbs to including a Prime Ministorial Smart Car motorcade.
Sydney is not the first place to cut the lights for conservation. In February, Paris and other parts of France dimmed the lights for five minutes in a similar gesture, which also took hold in Rome and Athens.
(Above; France and Athens when they cut the lights)
Ex-New York Mayor Abe Beame’s family is praising his foresight and asking the city for an apology for the New York Blackout of ‘77 comments that were made.
The White House to counteract the imbalance is giving away 10,000 free Hummers to people who can afford to buy them anyway.
