全球２４個城市響應“熄燈號”

李春生

Twenty four cities around the world will fall into shadow next month as homes and businesses turn off the lights to raise awareness about global warming, or-ganizers said Tuesday.

The “Earth Hour” initiative started in Australias biggest city Sydney last year when an estimated 2.2 million people flicked the switch — leaving the Sydney Opera House bathed in moonlight and the Harbour Bridge blacked out.

Organizer Andy Ridley said Sydneys 60-minutes of darkness generated huge interest around the world and 23 other cities from the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and the Middle East had now signed up to be part of the 2008 event.

The eight latest cities to join “Earth Hour” are Atlanta, San Francisco and Phoenix in the US; Thailands capital Bangkok; Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal in Canada and Dublin in Ireland.

They join Australian cities Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide; Den-marks Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense; the Philippine capital Manila, Fijis biggest city Suva, Christchurch in New Zealand; Chicago; Tel Aviv and Toronto.

Ridley said he expected the “Earth Hour” concept, which is managed by the conservation group WWF, to extend beyond the borders of these countries on the scheduled start time of 8:00 pm local time on Saturday March 29.

“I think it already has become much bigger,” he said.

“The idea was that anyone could do it, whether they were in a small village in France or a city like Sydney.”

Ridley said the Sydney event, in which residents were asked to switch off lights and appliances for one hour, had raised awareness about the problem of global warming while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by conserving energy.

“I know that on the night we thought we might be able to cut energy use in the city by five percent but it ended up being 10.1 percent” he said.

He said he hoped Earth Hour provided a “very big visual message” to politicians that climate change must be addressed quickly.

“The problem is massive but we do make a difference when we all take action,” he said.

活動組織者于本周二稱，全球24個城市將于下個月“陷入黑暗”。因為這些城市的家庭和企業屆時將集體熄燈，以引起人們對全球變暖問題的關注。

“地球一小時”活動于去年在澳大利亞最大的城市悉尼首次舉行。當時全市約有220萬居民集體熄燈，沒有燈光的悉尼歌劇院沐浴在月光里，海灣大橋也熄燈響應。

活動組織者安迪· 里德利說，悉尼的“熄燈一小時”活動引起了世界各國的極大興趣。目前，亞太、北美、歐洲以及中東地區的23個城市已報名參加今年的活動。

最新響應的八個城市是：美國的亞特蘭大、舊金山和菲尼克斯、泰國首都曼谷、加拿大的渥太華、溫哥華和蒙特利爾，以及愛爾蘭的都柏林。

此外，參與該活動的城市還包括：澳大利亞的悉尼、珀思、墨爾本、堪培拉、布里斯班、阿德萊德，丹麥的哥本哈根、阿爾胡斯、奧爾堡和歐登塞，菲律賓首都馬尼拉，斐濟最大的城市蘇瓦，新西蘭的教堂城；芝加哥；特拉維夫以及多倫多。

由世界野生動物基金會發起的“地球一小時”活動計劃于當地時間3月29日晚八點準時開始。里德利表示，他希望這一理念能越過國界，影響更多的國家。

他說：“現在這個活動的影響已經擴大了很多。”

“其實每個人都能做到這件事，無論你在法國的一個小鄉村還是在像悉尼這樣的大城市。”

里德里說，悉尼的這個活動在節能減排的同時，提高了人們對全球變暖問題的關注意識。活動當天，悉尼市民被要求關閉電燈和電器一小時。

他說：“我知道，大家以為當晚的活動可能會節約5%的能源，但實際上我們節約了10.1%的能源。”

里德里表示，他希望“地球一小時”活動能向政界人士傳遞一個“具有很強沖擊力的視覺信息”，讓他們意識到治理氣候變化刻不容緩。

他說：“這個問題的確嚴重，但我們一旦采取集體行動時，結果就不一樣了。”