Lights Out for Earth Hour
This Saturday, March 31, at 8:30 p.m. local time all over the world, people will be participating in Earth Hour by turning off non-essential lights. Above is a map from NOAA that shows the change over 18 years in nighttime light in North America, with decreases in purple, increases in yellow, and no change in white. The European Space Agency tells us (with the fairly ominious header, "André will be watching,") that astronaut André Kuipers aboard the International Space Station will be checking on our participation from low-Earth orbit. They've included an animation that shows the dramatic differences in light pollution in Europe between 1992 and 2010. And maybe once those non-essential lights are off, you'll realize just how non-essential they are and keep them that way?
Illustration by NOAA
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