Shallow Nation » Environment

Earth Hour 2009

Shallow Nation — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:51:47 +0000

Earth Hour is March 28, 2009 from 8:30pm to 9:30pm in your local time zone. Curious to know more? Read more and watch videos here.

The first Earth Hour was in 2007, the brainchild the World Wildlife Fund in Sydney, Australia. One city participated with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning off their lights for one hour. The next year, Earth Hour 2008 went global with 50 million people in 35 countries participating.

This year, the goal is one billion participants in Earth Hour 2009. Vote Earth’ is the theme this year. Turning off your lights for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. local time is a vote cast for the future survival of the Earth.

Famed artist Shepard Fairey who designed the ionic Obama logo has designed the official Earth Hour logo which you can see above. You can see and download the image in a number of formats on Flickr.

Will 1 billion people participate in 2009? Find out more at the official Earth Hour Web site.

It is estimated that more than 1,500 cities and towns in 80 countries will participate. Notably, in France, 28 cities including Paris will participate. This means that The Eiffel Tower and other iconic Paris landmarks including the Cathedral of Notre Dame and l’Elysée, will be darkened during that hour.

Other landmarks slated to participate by going dark or dim include: the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, The Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, Rome’s Colosseum, New York City’s Broadway theater signs, Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, the London Eye Ferris wheel, the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, the Las Vegas strip, Niagara Falls, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Table Mountain in Cape Town, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Source: An Hour to Help Save the Earth

Watch videos below.

Video Link

Video Link

YouTube video link (Click if you can’t see the video above.)

Earth Hour 2009

Michelle Obama White House Garden Photos, Video

Shallow Nation — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:49:24 +0000

First Lady Michelle Obama began work on a vegetable garden at the White House on March 20, 2009. See video and photos here. She had the assistance of more than two dozen fifth graders from from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, D.C. who will have ongoing involvement with the garden, planting, tending and harvesting the crops.

She becomes the first First Lady to plant a garden in the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt who planted a Victory garden during World War II. The White House Kitchen Garden is set on 1,100 square feet on the White House grounds and will be an organic vegetable garden, yielding crops year-round for the White House as well as for Miriam’s Kitchen, a Washington, DC soup kitchen.

Both the First Lady and the President have long advocated for organic, locally grown produce, both to foster healthier eating and to avoid dependence on industrial farms which use harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizer and consume fossil fuel in transporting food. Prior to the Obamas’ advocacy, Alice Waters, the chef at the famed Chez Panisse restaurant in California, a longtime champion of locally grown foods and the “slow foods” movement, has pushed for a White House garden since 1992. (See: White House becoming Green House?)

In a recent interview, Mrs. Obama discussed her commitment to use the garden to set an example.

“A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things that you’ll ever eat,” she said. “And my children know the difference, and that’s how I’ve been able to get them to try different things.

“I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House?”

Michelle Obama also addresses rising concern about improper diets which have lead to the high incidence of obesity and related illnesses including diabetes, in the U.S. and sees the garden as a means to raise awareness. Regarding the involvement of children from Bancroft Elementary School which, incidentally, has had a garden since 2001.

“My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

According to the New York Times, overseeing the new garden will be White House assistant chef Sam Kass, a longtime advocate of locally grown food and previously the Obamas’ chef in Chicago. It will grow 55 different varieties of produce, including both fruits and vegetables, adhering to the White House kitchen staff’s wish list and grown from organic seedlings which were started at the White House greenhouses. The grounds crew and the kitchen staff will do most of the work, with the assistance of the school children, the Obama family and White House staff members who have volunteered.

Source: Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

For more on the White House Garden groundbreaking ceremony, including photos, see Michelle Obama touts healthy eating as she tills new White House garden
and White House Garden Is Not Exactly Shovel-Ready

More Michelle Obama pictures and video after the jump…

Here is White House garden groundbreaking ceremony video. Photos below.

Video Link

Photo source: Whitehouse.gov Victory garden poster source: The National Archives

Michelle Obama White House Garden Photos, Video pics pictures

Earth Hour 2009 (Video)

Shallow Nation — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:32:28 +0000

Earth Hour is March 28, 2009. See video and find out more here about this new tradition begun in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when residents posed and answered the simple question that many of us may ask, “What can I do about climate change? I am just one person.” Collective efforts of many people created Earth Hour. The concept is as simple as it is powerful. Around the world, people are asked to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:30pm to 9:30pm in their local time zone. The tradition which spread worldwide in 2008 and will be repeated in 2009.

Major cities throughout the world will participate in Earth Hour 2009. Thus far 1,539 cities and towns in 80 countries have committed to participate in this powerful gesture which acknowledges that global warming is an issue that can’t be ignored. This is rapid growth when one considers this is only the 3rd year, with the first year having had participation only from the single, originating city, Sydney, Australia where 2.2 million homes and businesses participated. Notably, in France, 28 cities including Paris will participate. This means that The Eiffel Tower and other iconic Paris landmarks including the Cathedral of Notre Dame and l’Elysée, will be darkened during that hour.

Last year Earth Hour 2008 saw participation of 50 million people in 35 countries. Greg Bourne, chief executive of WWF Australia one of the members of the team that founded Earth Hour, discussed the impetus in a recent interview.

Bourne says the inspiration for the movement came from the global millennium fireworks displays in 2000. “We saw these fireworks start in Sydney, then go to London, New York, San Francisco and we thought `this celebration right around the world, let’s do it again but for an environmental issue; provide a beacon of hope that we can all make a difference’,” he says.

Source: The Switched on will Switch Off (The interview continues…)

Shepard Fairey who designed the ionic Obama logo has designed the official Earth Hour logo. You can see and download the image in a number of formats on Flickr.

Can 1 billion people participate in 2009? Time will tell. It all starts one person at a time. Find out more at the official Earth Hour Web site.

See also a gallery of photos from Earth Hour 2008

YouTube video link (Click if you can’t see the video above.)

Earth Hour 2009 (Video)

Why Are the Lights Out? Find Out Why in The Earth Hour Movie (Video)

Shallow Nation — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:20:48 +0000

The lights are out, even in the virtual world. People are asking, “Why Is Google black?”

On the page is the one line: “We’ve turned out the lights. Now it’s your turn,” with a link to a description of “Earth Hour.”

Google users in the United States will notice today that we “turned the lights out” onthe Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Find out more in the “Earth Hour Movie.”

Why Are the Lights Out? Find Out Why in The Earth Hour Movie (Video)