Cranbrook and Kimberley joined communities all over the world to mark Earth Hour on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30 p.m.
Hosted by the World Wildlife Fund, the global initiative began in 2007 and is the single, largest, symbolic mass participation event in the world. Earth Hour asks people to switch off unnecessary lights and electronics for one hour to show concern for the environment. The initiative's goal is to mobilize people to take action on climate change.
Around the world, 7,001 cities and towns in 152 countries participate each year.
This year, BC Hydro was unable to measure how much electricity use decreased during Earth Hour in Cranbrook and Kimberley.
However, Kevin Aquino, a spokesperson for BC Hydro, said homeowners can now look up their personal electricty use for that hour online at www.bchydro.com/myhydro.
“Currently, 1.1 million of our customers have access to their usage information online that can be broken down by the hour. Customers can log on to check to see if they have access to this data and compare their Earth Hour usage to their electricity use the previous Saturday. This will give them a better idea of whether or not their actions made a difference in reducing their consumption,” said Aquino.
Meanwhile, across B.C., 136 megawatt hours of electricity were saved during Earth Hour on Saturday, which reduced the provincial electricity load by 1.95 per cent - the equivalent of turning off more than 10 million 12.5-watt LED light bulbs.
The total provincial energy savings from Earth Hour participation since 2008 is 500.27 megawatt hours of electricity — the equivalent of turning off 40 million 12.5-watt LED light bulbs.