EARTH HOUR: TORONTO

Powering down

Residents and businesses join a global initiative to cut consumption for 60 minutes in a call to action on climate change

MEGAN GRITTANI-LIVINGSTON

March 28, 2008

Tomorrow evening Gerald Mak is going for a walk. At 8 p.m., the Grade 12 student will turn off all the lights and unplug all the power bars in his family's house, cutting off every energy-munching TV and computer. Then, he says, he'll "take a walk in the park for one hour."

Aside from being student school trustee and a nominee for a Green Toronto Award, Mr. Mak, who attends Earl Haig Secondary School in North York, is one of more than 240,000 people and 17,000 businesses all over the globe registered to take part in Earth Hour, an initiative that calls for reducing power consumption for 60 minutes. And many more are expected to join in.

In Toronto, Mr. Mak joins thousands of people and the managers of more than 80 buildings, including landmarks such as the CN Tower, Fairmont Royal York, the Air Canada Centre and major office towers, who plan to hit the lights tomorrow night.

Though essential lights such as street lamps will stay on, most of Toronto's skyline is supposed to go dark. "It will be quite dramatic," said Lawson Oates, director of the city's Environment Office.

The seeds for the global movement were planted last March in Australia where the local branches of the World Wildlife Fund and global advertising agency Leo Burnett concocted a campaign that asked residents and businesses in Sydney to turn off their lights for an hour.

"They were looking for a way to demonstrate the public's deep concern about climate change," said Julia Langer, director of the climate-change program for WWF-Canada.

The Sydney event produced a 10.2-per-cent reduction in power use, double the predicted savings. This year Earth Hour has gone global.

Tomorrow, more than 50,000 Canadians and 2,500 businesses in upwards of 150 cities and municipalities are scheduled to turn off, forming the second-largest national group of participants - behind the United States and ahead of Australia. Toronto was the first Canadian city to join on as an event partner, followed by Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, alongside 21 other world cities.

Earth Hour's popularity is being attributed to a desire to send a message about helping the environment in a simple way. "If we're doing this, we're showing Torontonians how to actually make a huge difference, something they can do at home that doesn't cost anything," Mr. Mak said.

Local landmarks are scheduled to douse or dim external lights. All inside overhead lights should be turned off in skyscrapers such as the 72-storey First Canadian Place, and on 210 of the 220 floors in the six-tower Toronto-Dominion Centre. Many of the high-powered tenants, such as BMO Financial Group in First Canadian Place, say they will abide by the lights-out policy for the hour - although BMO noted in a news release that the interior of branches and ATMs won't go dark for security reasons.

Pearson International Airport is aiming to decrease its energy use by four megawatts, or about 15 per cent, over the hour by reducing lighting, heating and air conditioning in Terminals 1 and 3.

An Earth Hour party in Downsview Park features glow-in-the-dark soccer, a drumming circle and a meditation group. Many hotels are expected to take part, while restaurants such as Toulà Ristorante and Bar in the Westin Harbour Castle plan to turn out the lights and hold candlelight dinners.

"We're doing our part, just like everybody else," Toulà manager Andrei Gaveniuc said.

Residents in the Merchandise Building, a complex of lofts northeast of Dundas and Church Streets, will go without non-essential lights and recreation facilities for the hour, and are encouraged to turn off lights in their own units. Property manager Bill Foss said he thinks many will.

"It's a downtown, professional crowd that lives in here, particularly cognizant of green issues," Mr. Foss said.

The City of Toronto, a co-sponsor of Earth Hour here along with WWF-Canada, Virgin Mobile and the Toronto Star, is hosting an evening concert at Nathan Phillips Square featuring Nelly Furtado, which will be run on electricity from Bullfrog Power, a company that says it offers power from emissions-free sources.

The city also aims to turn off all lights except emergency beams at City Hall, Metro Hall, Exhibition Place and all civic centres.

The Star will reduce lighting in its editorial offices and Vaughan printing plant, while keeping its presses idle, and Virgin Canada plans to have its call-centre operators in its King Street West office lit only by computer monitors.

Earl Haig, along with other schools, will celebrate early - today from 2 to 3 p.m. Mr. Mak said all the lights will go out in his school and all the electrical appliances will be turned off, and he hopes other students will carry that forward to participate in tomorrow's event.

Some participants, including Mr. Foss, acknowledge that one hour without lights won't change everything. But it's a way of "drawing people's attention to the issue, I think that's how I would see it," Mr. Foss said.

WWF-Canada's Ms. Langer said the event's popularity should stand as a strong indication of the public's concern about the environment: "This is basically a call to action, which we certainly hope will not be ignored."

What will you do?

"A sense of purpose surged through my finger as I reached for the light switch to darken the long-life bulbs in my bedroom," The Globe's Tenille Bonoguore (training for Earth Hour) writes in a story to be published this Saturday in the GlobeT.O. section of the newspaper. Tenille will be online today at 11 a.m. ET at globeandmail.com to talk about Earth Hour. Send your questions and observations now and join us then for a discussion about this seminal event.

Are you participating in Earth Hour? Send your photos and videos to globeandmail.com and follow the links.

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