Earth Hour in San Francisco

Before Earth hour: Downtown San Francisco at 8:20pm
Before Earth hour: Downtown San Francisco at 8:20pm

 

I attempted to “celebrate” Earth Hour last weekend by going to Dolores Park (down the street a few blocks from my house) to see if the lights would all shut off at 8:30, as was the idea behind the event. Never mind that I brought my digital camera, never mind that I brought my digital camera. 

At around 8:30 the lights in the park went out and a few notable buildings shut off their lights- City Hall, a few towers downtown, and the Bay Bridge had most of its lights off. Overall, not too shockingly dark though:

During Earth Hour: the view from Dolores Park in San Francisco
During Earth Hour: downtown San Francisco at 8:35pm

I’m not sure how much this token gesture really helps, but maybe it makes people more concious of their electricity usage during the rest of the year. A friend pointed out that lots of extra power was probably used the hour before Earth Hour as people like me charged their digital cameras. Oh well.

One other thing. If you are looking at this in Internet Explorer, all the text is probably pushed against the left side of your browser window. My apologies. I am looking into this and hope to fix it soon.  It’s a great time for you consider switching to Firefox or Google’s Chrome (my new favorite).

By Mark

Mark is an architect in San Francisco.