Before and after shot of Sydney Australia participating in Earth Hour from this morning (to us).
Tonight is Earth Hour across the planet and Montreal is taking part. Various cities around the world will turn off the lights for one hour between 8pm and 9pm local time in an effort to raise awareness about emission output caused by overuse of electricity. The story in the Gazette explains further:
The purpose is to save electricity, cut greenhouse gases and spark dialogue about other ways we can act to save the planet.
“During that hour, we hope that Montrealers will think, talk to one another and figure out other gestures to contribute to a better world for future generations,” said Alan DeSousa, Montreal executive committee member in charge of sustainable development.
The event is merely symbolic of course, as turning the lights off for one hour isn’t going to make much of an impact on the grid, however, it will be neat to see the city descend in darkness for an hour. In Montreal, the cross atop Mont-Royal will be extinguished along with the the floodlights on City Hall and the rotating light on Place Ville-Marie. I’ve been told that people are planning on going to the lookout on Mont-Royal tonight to see the lights go out at 8 but anywhere that the skyline can be seen will probably give an excellent view of the event.
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Well, I dutifully turned out the lights, sat around for a bit, twiddled my thumbs, looked out the window, noticed the tops of the skyscrapers downtown all off, but many of the lights still on… so I went out for a walk to see how different the city looked.
Not much different, actually. City Hall was indeed dark except for a few lights left on inside. Place Ville-Marie’s spotlight was off, but lots of lights were left on in the building, and the IBM building and the Aldred building still had their external lights on. The KPMG and Cadillac-Fairview horrors were, thankfully, pretty dark, as was Complexe Desjardins.
So I guess the lesson is that ugly buildings are more socially responsible.
I arrived at Crescent Street and Sainte Catherine around 7:58, went in to L3B for a few drinks, then walked out toward Peel at about 8:55. Apart from KPMG and Place Montreal-Trust towers, I noticed no change whatsoever. It was especially disappointed walking in front of the like of (Cheens…) Buffalo and Guess, which had all closed up shop three hours prior, to see not only their storefront signs but their entire interior lit up like a Christmas Tree.
Maybe next year…
Hey Chris, did you make it to the top of Mount Royal? I was there along with about 50 or so other anxious onlookers. All in all though everyone pretty much left disappointed. Granted it was great to see the annoying PVM spinning light extinguished, but apart from that, really… blah. So sad. Amazing that Alan DeSousa keeps trying to get credit for Montreal’s lackluster effort this year. I mean they couldn’t turn every light off on City hall? Come On!
No, I unfortunately had to work during it and couldn’t see the skyline from where I work. I went out for a short break and noticed that the floodlights for the Centre du Commerce Mondiale were off but the massive lights lighting up the corners of the Tour de la Bourse were still on. On my walk home at 1:30am the skyline was noticeably dimmer but there were still lights. The city seems to lose something with the PVM rotating light being off though. It was interesting to see.