Lights Out for Change

Saturday night was the night that the lights went out in Sydney. At 7:30, homes, businesses and even famous skyline landmarks like the Sydney Opera House went dark for one hour to raise awareness about global warming and the steps that can be taken to help. Australia, with it's 21 million residents, is ranked the world's number 1 greenhouse gas emitter per capita.

Earth Hour was organized by environmentalists as the kick off to a campaign asking Sydney residents to turn off lights, computers and other electrical equipment when not in use which could reduce gas emissions by 5% a year. Scientists estimate that, without change, temperatures in Australia could rise 6.7 degrees by the year 2080, bringing more of the catastrophic weather conditions that have plagued the world in the last decades.

Sydney is not the first city to put the lights out for change. Paris, Rome and Athens have held similar conservation initiatives.