Earth Hour 2008 is this Saturday, March 29th from 8 to 9 PM. Join in and turn off all your electrical devices and lights to promote awareness and commit yourself and your family to taking action against global warming! Whole Foods Market Toronto: Dancing and Shopping in the Dark Take out the lights at an organic grocery store, and you get candle light, a dance floor and the sweet serenade of a local violinist. At least, that's what the Whole Foods Market in downtown Toronto plans to do during Earth Hour. From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. this Saturday, the natural foods store will turn off all its unnecessary lights and allow customers to do their shopping by tea lights. Their café will be open for a "Dancing in the Dark" event with music played by a Royal Conservatory of Music violinist. "One of core values is that we care about the environment," marketing manager Jim Empey said, adding that the grocery chain decided to sign on with Earth Hour several months ago. The store, located on 87 Avenue Road, has put up signs to promote their Dancing in the Dark night. They are also asking customers who plan to come to arrive either on foot or by TTC. "We want to educate our customers as well as be shown as a leader in the community in helping the environment," Empey said. But they don't want to be preachy about Earth Hour, he added, because for some people, the event on the 29th is about staying at home. The one hour on Saturday will not be the be-all-and-end-all for the store’s involvement in environmental consciousness. The Whole Foods Market chain has taken action over the year to eliminate its carbon footprint. There are wind credits for all its stores, meaning the production of renewable sources such as wind is subsidized through brokers, since the company cannot purchase wind sources directly. In 2006, the natural foods grocery chain set out to contract 458,000 megawatt-hours of these wind credits. One of such credits equals one megawatt-hour in renewable electricity. This meant all of its electricity use was offset. Their Toronto store in particular, Empey said, has eliminated and stopped using plastic bags. They also have been giving shoppers a 10-cent refund every time they bring a bag back to the store—whether plastic, weaved or cloth. Next month, the avant-garde grocery store will start a program called One Dime at a Time where customers have the choice to donate that 10-cent refund to charity instead. Every month would be a different charity, Empey said, starting with Evergreen in April. Briton House Retirement Residence: All that JazzNelly Furtado may be playing a free show at Nathan Phillips Square for a crowd of people heard of Earth Hour through Facebook, but this doesn’t mean an elderly population won’t be participating Saturday night. In fact, the residents of the Briton House, a retirement residence at Eglinton Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road, were thrilled when she asked them if they wanted to participate in Earth Hour, social director Emily Keir said. “This brings us together to be part of a global scale,” Keir said. The retirement home will shut off their lights and light candles earlier at 7 p.m., only leaving the emergency lights on in the hallways. At that time, jazz duo Paper Moon will perform for the residents until 8:30 p.m. from a repertoire of “oldies” that follow a theme of “lights going down,” Keir said. Afterward, maintenance supervision staff will help the residents get back to their own rooms. They are encouraged to mingle and chat without electricity still, but they will not be forced to shut off all power in their individual rooms, Keir said. “People are aware and want to be involved, but it’s difficult to implement because we’re a large institution,” she said. Regardless, the retirement home, which houses 250 residents, has made an effort outside of Earth Hour to take care of its environment. The seniors’ social events are supplied with real cups and saucers, as the home shies away from using plastics and glass. Briton House residents, who have always participated in the design of their garden, are also interested in planting more perennials to attract butterflies and create a butterfly natural garden this year, Keir said. “(We) try to do a little bit wherever we can,” she said. Ontario Science Centre When all its outdoor, parking and building lights are turned off Saturday night, the Ontario Science Centre plans to take the party outside. The Science Centre will host a free Star Party in the outdoor Teluscape area at the front entrance for Earth Hour starting at 8 p.m. and end by 10 p.m. The party will feature high-power telescopes that allow people to look at stars and planets such as Mars and Venus, a DJ and Ojibway storyteller Aaron Bell, who will recount tales about the sky and the stars. The popular electricity generating bikes with the light bulbs will also be moved to the lobby so attendees can pedal on them. The Centre's spokesperson, Ellen Flowers, said they hope by this time the light pollution from the downtown area will be less and the stars and planets will be much more visible. But Saturday night is not simply one star-gazing event-- it's also about a larger picture in research. The Science Centre is participating in a nation-wide survey with Red Shift Now, an online resource created by the Centre with star-watching information and facts. Participants will be given cards at 8:45 p.m. to indicate how many stars they can see and count. At 9:15 p.m., when the lights go back on around the city, they will count the stars again in the same area and the results will be put up by the Centre's astronomer on redshiftnow.ca. The survey is a study on light pollution. "For us to participate in Earth Hour was obvious because we believe in what it stands for," Flowers said. "We wanted to marry it with our star party." And this concept, Flowers said, comes out of the Toronto Blackout in 2003 when people realized there are a lot of stars they can't see because of the light pollution problem in the city. "It's just to get people thinking...we do have this fragile Earth that we need to take care of," she said. The Centre has had other star parties and they have always been successful, Flowers said, adding that the lunar eclipse one saw about 400 people and that even more people are expected this weekend, as they have been doing a lot of promotion recently. "It's about adding awareness (and)...reaching beyond the walls of the Science Centre," Flowers said. |