Shine on, friend. Goodnight.

April 1, 2009 12:12 PM

The Big Picture has photos taken during Earth Hour 2009. Click the photos to go from "lit" to "unlit." (Earth Hour home, wiki, previously)
posted by hifiparasol (65 comments total)

"...and stay off!!!!"
posted by notsnot at 12:22 PM on April 1 [4 favorites]

That is very cool.
posted by lazaruslong at 12:23 PM on April 1

Amazing how you can see how illuminated the cities are by the rest of the light pollution, after the main light source in the pictures are turned off.
posted by not_on_display at 12:27 PM on April 1

lv th mrphng phts.
posted by chrdrc at 12:27 PM on April 1

I feel Godlike!

Las Vegas: NO LIGHT FOR YOU!
posted by mazola at 12:28 PM on April 1

I HAD to know how he did that, so I did a source code looksee. (IANACoder)

underneath the "HeadDiv", there's some javascript (I'm inserting non-html brackets.)

[script]var isFading = 0;function setOpacity...... etc etc etc ........[/span]

Nifty.
posted by reflecked at 12:33 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

I think these can make a strong case for leaving 'nonessential lighting' off.
posted by koeselitz at 12:35 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

Wow, Toronto really didn't give a shit about Earth Hour 2009.
posted by minifigs at 12:41 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

I like the idea, and I understand that the photos are probably taken with a long exposure time to really saturate the light, but it's kind of depressing how little difference there is between "lit" and "unlit."

Nice presentation though.
posted by lekvar at 12:41 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

You know what would be cool? If we had this going on all the time.
posted by dunkadunc at 12:43 PM on April 1

^ $1 per kwhr might do the trick
posted by mrt at 12:45 PM on April 1

Sometimes the best thing I can think of is "Cool!"

And yet it is probably the most apropos.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 12:45 PM on April 1

What, no NYC? Fail.
posted by monospace at 12:46 PM on April 1

Why the heck is the Water Cube in Beijing still lit-up? I'm almost positive the Olympics are over.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 12:48 PM on April 1

Earth Hour - Started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour quickly grew into a global observance.

Hey, and we just took it to the next level: at around COB on the Monday after Earth Hour, the entire CBD and a number of surrounding suburbs had a blackout that lasted a few hours.

See what all this do-gooding does? First it's all "hey, let's turn the lights off & burn twice as much energy in candles for an hour - that'll be fun!" and the next thing you know, you're stuck in an elevator for three hours with all your work colleagues & a bursting bladder.

Earth Hour is the thin edge of the wedge. Don't fall for it!
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:49 PM on April 1

Lights on the Las Vegas Strip are viewed looking northbound from the Mandalay Bay Resort

Mandalay Bay? WTF? Mandalay's right in the fucking centre of Burma. There's no bay. That'd be like calling a business Houston Glacier; it's that ridiculous.

*grumble, stupid geographical ignorance, grumble*
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:55 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

Las Vegas typically only dims the lights on the Strip to mourn the death of a favorite son or daughter. It was very interesting to see it happen for a different cause.
posted by Spatch at 12:55 PM on April 1

the lights stayed off forever here

15 patients die when lights turned off
posted by Postroad at 1:01 PM on April 1

My wife and I looked at this article and had a discussion around how much energy was saved by turning off all these lights for 1 hr. vs. how much energy/time/money/etc. was used in preparation for this? How much overtime, meeting time, drive time, programming time was used world wide to accomplish all this?

Me thinks that when you stack carbons saved vs. carbons used for this whole thing the difference is probably pretty small. Not trying to knock the attempt, just thinking that the real winner here isn't so much the planet, but the PR firms involved.

(now excuse me while I go drink from my half empty glass)
posted by Smarson at 1:06 PM on April 1

Mandalay Bay? WTF?

Remarkably, this is the exact same reaction that is provoked by actually visiting the hotel, which seems to have been constructed entirely out of bathrooms from 1985.
posted by Skot at 1:06 PM on April 1 [6 favorites]

Wow, Toronto really didn't give a shit about Earth Hour 2009.

You're not wrong. The Royal York's sign is off, and the floodlights up the CN Tower elevator shafts are dark, but that's about it. If I saw the Earth Hour picture on its own, stripped of context, I could look at the "during" photo for a long time before I noticed anything unusual.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:06 PM on April 1

Postroad: bbspot is a fake news site, sort of like The Onion but for computer nerds.
posted by jedicus at 1:08 PM on April 1

I'm proud to say that a good half of my town was completely and totally black during Earth Hour this year.

Sadly, it way more to do with a massive thunderstorm and high winds that knocked out power for a few hours than with an eco-mindedness. But Go Murfreesboro!
posted by teleri025 at 1:11 PM on April 1

Me thinks that when you stack carbons saved vs. carbons used for this whole thing the difference is probably pretty small.

Yeah, that's probably the case. The last MeFi post on the subject linked to an article that said the amount ultimately saved is something like the equivalent of taking six cars off the road for a year.

It's clearly intended as an awareness-raising tool... so is there a reliable way to tell what kind of impact it had on people's habits?
posted by hifiparasol at 1:18 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

From the comments of the article:
I switched over th CFL when it was introduced. I was one of the first guys to start using Lovato Auto Gas kit for my Car to use LPG as a fuel, way back in1995. I was also one of the first guys to have solar powered water heaters for hot water supply to home in early 2000. I am already a satisfied guy that I am consciously trying to contribute to save our dear mother earth.

You could power ALL those lights with that guy's smug.
posted by educatedslacker at 1:22 PM on April 1

Dear lord don't read the comments on the Big Big Picture site.... Sometimes I forget how good this place is. Luckily I have other sites to remind me (accidentally read sportsline.com comments earlier; ouch.)
posted by inigo2 at 1:22 PM on April 1

You could power ALL those lights with that guy's smug.

Balanced out by stuff like this:

"It's all a bunch of nonsense. What arrogance to think we itty bitty humans can control what happens to this earth. It's GOD WHO DECIDES when the the volcanoes will erupt, tornadoes will hit or the earth quakes. You worship the creation instead of the Creator. Shame on all of you."
posted by inigo2 at 1:23 PM on April 1

Wow, yeah, you can sure save a lot of energy by doing this. You know what else we could do? If we didn't build such farcical buildings that are against my personal sensibilities and instead just created strong huts out of mud and clay, we could save even more. Also, this stupid, blasphemous internet thing - were we to turn it off for an hour, imagine the inspiring reverie that would follow! Useless non-essential "technology" bullshit.
posted by setanor at 1:26 PM on April 1

There is definitely something to this. Excessively lit buildings are a huge waste, and they ruin night vision for people as well as making stargazing impossible. Why should castles and Eiffel Towers, etc. be lit up, instead of letting people enjoy a bit of peace and quiet overnight?
posted by explosion at 1:34 PM on April 1

Why should castles and Eiffel Towers, etc. be lit up, instead of letting people enjoy a bit of peace and quiet overnight?

Because of the 99.99% of the planet that is not adjacent to a castle or an Eiffel tower.
posted by setanor at 1:36 PM on April 1

It's cool to see which features of the city become more apparent and stand out when the iconic buildings are no longer the focus.
posted by rmless at 2:10 PM on April 1

Why should castles and Eiffel Towers, etc. be lit up

Because cities use that shit to please tourists wandering around at night saying, "Dude, look at the castle!" before staggering into the next pub. I guess the chambers of commerce figure the electricity cost pays off in tourist dollars. A daytime city can be drab and cluttered, a dark city is invisible, but a selectively lighted city is a 3D post card.
posted by pracowity at 2:10 PM on April 1

Woah, the Ericsson arena goes pretty stealth-like when the lights are off.
posted by djgh at 2:12 PM on April 1

I think EarthHour is a fab idea, but you have got do it right if you are going to participate. I was working brunch at my bar, we were going to participate so we set out tea lights and talked to the servers hours before the happening. I actually leave work before it starts and we meet our friends with their newborn at new hip Italian joint. My friend is making her way to the bathroom with a baby when the whole place goes pitch black. She just has to stand there for a while, servers knocking into her, until she can kind of get her bearing. Our server is kind of frantic because the owner just decided to do it and she doesn't have candles or a flashlight or anything. I end up taking my food home to eat because, well, I like to look at my food before I put it in my mouth.
posted by stormygrey at 2:15 PM on April 1

I was underwhelmed in looking at these. How little difference was made by all that hype.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:20 PM on April 1

You know what would be cool? If we had this going on all the time.

Lights Out, Conservation on for City's Tall Towers

"The lights in Boston's tallest office buildings will be turned off tonight [September 3, 2008] at 11 as part of a two-month-long city initiative to conserve electricity by darkening familiar silhouettes such as the Hancock building and Prudential Tower.

Property owners, acting at the request of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, have agreed to shut off the lights at 34 skyscrapers from the Back Bay to the South Boston waterfront - a move that will save about 25 percent in energy used for lighting. The pilot program - which involves extinguishing the lights above the 30th floor between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. - will continue through Oct. 31, but city officials said they expect to make it a permanent program at all high-rise buildings."

Lights Out Boston

"On March 10, 2009, Mayor Thomas M. Menino stood alongside prominent commercial property owners and the President of the Mass Audubon from the Skywalk at the Prudential Tower to announce the continuation of the Lights Out Boston initiative for the spring."

posted by ericb at 3:01 PM on April 1

"15 patients die when lights turned off"

So it aids the voluntary human extinction program as well. Bonus!
posted by Smedleyman at 3:08 PM on April 1

I love the big picture. Pay attention everyone else - we like big pictures. They tell 1,000 really big words.
posted by Elmore at 3:18 PM on April 1

minifigs: Wow, Toronto really didn't give a shit about Earth Hour 2009. ricochet biscuit: You're not wrong.

Apparently, Ontario-wide power usage was down 6%, while Toronto's dropped 15.1% on "Saturday night between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., local time."

(I can't believe that I, a guy from Saskatchewan, is defending Toronto).

Toronto Hydro seems to have live-blogged it, and there's photo of the power readout there, too.
posted by Decimask at 3:38 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

I is. Really, I is.
posted by Decimask at 3:38 PM on April 1 [3 favorites]

The Acropolis look positively haunting with the lights off. I think they should leave them off and let the shadows do the trick of impressing its beauty and presence on you.
posted by Sova at 4:06 PM on April 1

I'll bet there was at least one person in every city that participated who had no idea Earth Hour exists, and who are cursed with the awful timing to have asked at the moment the lights went out, "God, if you want me to [pull the plug] [break up with her] [quit my job and start a business selling cheese shaped like Chairman Mao], give me a sign!"
posted by nosila at 4:23 PM on April 1

Earth hour should be every week

The pope has built some massive light polluting prayer tower near my house, it's lit by large halogen lamps all night- TOTALLY unnecessarily, but then again, he probably wants god to look own on it, give two thumbs up and say "Nice one Ratso" (god's nickname for Ratzinger).

I wish I had an air rifle, bad attitude, and could be bothered.
posted by mattoxic at 5:02 PM on April 1

Well, for what was supposed to be an hour of darkness, that was pretty frakin' pathetic.

I'd love to see cities get serious about turning off lights at night. Streetlights, too. City humans suffer a great disconnect from the universe by not having the ability to see the night sky.

To see the sky on a moonless night hundreds of miles from the nearest light source, is a humbling thing. It hammers home the enormity of the universe, the infinitesimal tininess of ourselves, and gives pause for thought as to the fragility of our existence.

I think we'd have a better world if we had a darker world at night.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:09 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

City humans suffer a great disconnect from the universe by not having the ability to see the night sky.

Please. Many city humans live in cities for reasons that make as much sense as the reasons people give for living in rural areas do to them. I love the lights of the city, and I feel connected to the Universe constantly. I don't need constant visual reinforcement to comprehend the wonders that surround me, nor do I think I should be condescended to because of that.
posted by setanor at 5:23 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]

Eiffel Tower

posted by cogneuro at 5:30 PM on April 1

oops
Eiffel Tower
[gasp]
posted by cogneuro at 5:30 PM on April 1

I think every night we should turn off the same number of lights. All night. Keep what you need for a bit of safety, and traffic direction. Everything else off.

Light pollution is bad for us, and for animals, and - most importantly - it's hell on astronomy. We don't need the lights - turn them off.

- so says an urbanite
posted by jb at 5:37 PM on April 1

Why should castles and Eiffel Towers, etc. be lit up, instead of letting people enjoy a bit of peace and quiet overnight?

Because of the 99.99% of the planet that is not adjacent to a castle or an Eiffel tower.

Light pollution is a very real issue for the whole planet. There are only a few remote places on earth that are ever as dark as the entire planet used to be before electricity. This New Yorker piece from a couple years ago is an interesting read and provides details. But unless you live in patagonia, you have probably never really seen the night sky, not the way our forefathers did, when they spoke of the awe it inspired within them.

Most modern ordinary people have never seen the Milky Way, or if they have, it is just a thin little wispy trail. PLenty of people think just a few constellations is normal - but that's all due to light pollution. At level 9 on the Bortle scale, the Milky Way casts shadows on the ground and there are various galaxies and clusters visible to the naked eye.
posted by mdn at 6:04 PM on April 1 [2 favorites]

Light pollution is a very real issue for the whole planet.

I think the most important thing your article addresses is the difference between well-lit and unlit, and I hope that more and more cities move to building codes that require efficient, direct lighting. However, I would suggest that much of the light pollution we currently suffer under is due to the endless thousands of square miles of suburban tracts that have stretched between cities like webbed feet rather than urban cores which are condensed.
posted by setanor at 6:19 PM on April 1

It is very doubtful to me, setanor, that you have ever seen a full sky. I think that if you had, you'd know what of I speak: without light pollution, the night sky is awe inspiring beyond words.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:14 PM on April 1

this so needs to go on this as a feature
posted by yoHighness at 7:20 PM on April 1

It is very doubtful to me, setanor, that you have ever seen a full sky. I think that if you had, you'd know what of I speak: without light pollution, the night sky is awe inspiring beyond words.

No, I haven't, and I don't doubt what you say. I simply don't think "Good riddance, let's turn them all off for good" is an appropriate way to deal with the problem.
posted by setanor at 7:53 PM on April 1

I did not realize that I had written "Good riddance, let's turn them all off for good."
posted by five fresh fish at 7:59 PM on April 1

without light pollution, the night sky is awe inspiring beyond words

Very true. I had the pleasure of watching a full night sky during a blackout in Leh, an already tiny town 3,500 metres up in the Himalaya, with no real city within hundreds of kilometres around, and no air pollution to speak of either.

Know what was the most striking thing, that we don't see in our cities? Shooting stars. Every few minutes. They almost rain down. And satellites, drifting lazily across the sky. Lots of satellites.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:23 PM on April 1

I think the most interesting thing is how many people participated. That's a lot of people who'd probably support more action on climate change than we're currently getting from governments around the world. Hardly anyone in my city did it, but seeing how many other people around the world gave it a go made me feel less like a lone voice calling for real action instead of empty promises.
posted by harriet vane at 9:34 PM on April 1

UbuRoivas: One Lucky Bastard.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:45 PM on April 1

My own lucky bastard story: watching the [name of late-August meteor show here] meteor shower from a mountain-top in the Rockies. Phenomenal.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:47 PM on April 1

Having parents of a Northern (English) origin, I was brought up to despise waste, which ultimately turned me into the pale, shrewd, creature of darkness that I am. The Peter Kay "big light" routine pretty much nails it. That said, I whole-heartedly endorse this shallow PR stunt masquerading as environmentalism if it means I don't have to lecture my kids about it being "like bloody Blackpool illuminations in here!"
posted by Acey at 5:52 AM on April 2

Also, I'd like them (if they ever exist) to be able to enjoy the night sky.
posted by Acey at 5:53 AM on April 2

Here in Kuwait, they shut the lights on Kuwait Towers and Liberation Tower.

It was interesting visually. The towers immediately went full off and full on. The lights at Liberation Tower did a slow fade out and came back on slowly so it sorta receded and emerged.

'Round here (and presumably elsewhere), there is extremely little awareness about conserving energy so any little thing that helps even a little, it can't be bad.

Too, dunno if people elsewhere did things beyond hitting the switches, but the Kuwait effort included an hour-long energy-conservation program for kids--which attracted several hundred people. 'Twould be better if it was 17,000 people, but it's a step.
posted by ambient2 at 6:36 AM on April 2

sorry, I meant at level 1 on the bortle scale... level 9 is the opposite end, where you can barely see any stars (what NYC is most nights)

However, I would suggest that much of the light pollution we currently suffer under is due to the endless thousands of square miles of suburban tracts that have stretched between cities like webbed feet rather than urban cores which are condensed.

Well, the light produced by cities and towns is scattered into the night sky and affects a larger region than just the occupants & their immediate neighbors. Certainly the suburban areas contribute to the problem, but to suggest that larger urban centers don't is just wishful thinking.

Lighting up the man-made structures looks great - but sometimes we go for glamour instead of beauty, since if we let the moon or the zodiac light up our man-made structures, sometimes they would be truly breathtaking. INstead we hit them with ritzy straight-on wattage. it looks great, but we don't experience the sense of awe and wonder that a clear night can produce. Electric light is safe and familiar, while natural light is literally out of this world.

Which isn't to say we should ditch electric light altogether or something, but it is actually really nice to spend some time in an area that doesn't have electricity. You don't need that much light at night; kerosene lamps and candlelight is enough for those few hours of darkness before sleep and they feel very relaxed. The difference between day and night becomes so much more real than it is in a city (the phrase "different as night and day" - does it mean anything to someone who grows up in the modern world? all the same stores are open, all the same TV channels, internet sites, and the color of the sky is just a vague background thing, not important at all). And you can really see the sky.

I have probably only seen night skies of 3 or 4 on the Bortle scale but I have still been overwhelmed by the incredible amount of stars and the beauty of our galaxy. Though it is best if you have regular access to a location, since if it is not a clear night, you won't see that many stars (you don't see clouds at night, unless there is a lot of light pollution, but they will still block patches of the sky and just look like dark space). So to get that perfect sky you need the right spot, not too much moonlight, and no clouds.

But I know plenty of people who grew up in what they thought of as "backwoods" type areas, but which were still close enough to major areas that the sky was pretty washed out. You can live in a cabin in the woods, but if you're only 100 miles from, say, DC and even closer to some smaller cities/towns, your sky will be affected. I remember hiking with a friend from northern Minnesota who had to ask me what the Milky Way was once - she always talked like her hometown was remote, but it's all relative, and most people just have no idea what they're missing.
posted by mdn at 3:05 PM on April 2

the phrase "different as night and day" - does it mean anything to someone who grows up in the modern world?

that reminds me of a french idiom i heard: "between dog and wolf", referring to late twilight; a time of day when a peasant spying a canine in the distance couldn't tell which one it was.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:28 PM on April 2

Toronto totally gave a shit. Look at how the Orange Glow That Is Always Inexplicably Omnipresent In Toronto (OGTIAIOIT) fades to nothing in the second pic.
posted by tehloki at 3:43 AM on April 3

I could hardly contain my excitement when I realized that I was flying into SFO on Saturday night at 9:30. I was glued to the airplane window, trying to see as much darkness as possible. Very cool from the sky.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:58 AM on April 3