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Lights Out, Los Angeles: Earth Hour is Tonight
Photo: Ivy Dawned via Flickr
Los Angeles is one of the many global cities participating in Earth Hour tonight. The annual event, which seems to be gaining popularity with each year, calls for everyone to turn off any non-essential lights for just one hour, and that hour is tonight from 8:30-9:30 local time. L.A. is getting into Earth Hour big time tonight, with several well-known landmarks--like Capitol Records, the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier, and the pylons at LAX--pledging to shut off their lights for the hour. There is going to be a gathering at L.A. Live in Downtown, where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will flip the switch on the entertainment campus. Diners at several LA restaurants, including those at L.A. Live, can enjoy a meal by candlelight tonight (it's probably too late to book a table for Opaque, the novelty dining-in-the-dark experience now at the V Lounge in Santa Monica).
The official Earth Hour folks are looking to hear about your lights out experiences, so if you're on Twitter, use the hashtags #earthhour or #voteearth along with your #location to get the word out. They also ran a propaganda posse campaign, where supporters of the event posted copies of the Shepard Fairey designed poster around town to see who could get the most up. (Really? How eco-friendly is a papering campaign and competition?) The best way to participate is to simply turn off your lights at 8:30 pm and spend just one hour in the dark--or better, take today as an opportunity to reform all your light-use habits, and look for opportunities to turn 'em off all day long. But if you want to see the lights go out all over Los Angeles, you can head to LA Live and, thanks to the miracle of electricity, and watch the Jumbotron screens, which, apparently, are opting out of the turning out.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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