The night the lights went out in ...
...the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome and the Greek parliament in Athens.
No, it's not a bad remake of the 1973 song sung by Vicki Lawrence. It was local governments of these European communities voluntarily turned the lights out to express their concern for climate change across the European continent. The events were scheduled to coincide with the release of a major climate change report that says humans are "very likely" responsible for global warming.
Other European cities took similar publicity oriented actions. Meanwhile, in the USA they didn't go out in Georgia, Carbondale, or anywhere else on the North American continent. More likely, we turned-up our thermostats to counter the increasingly cold winter weather.
Sometimes leaders lead by example. Admitedly the lights-out acts were just token gestures, but they serve as a reminder of what the future could portend and how dependent society has become on centralized power distribution services such as electricity.
The City of Carbondale once taught energy conservation by example. It funded a demonstration house on the SIU campus that showed how either passive or active solar energy systems andcost-effective energy conservation measures could significantly reduce energy consumption and high utility bills. The house was part of a larger municipal program called "The Other Utility" -- a pointed reminder of the difference between supply-side energy solutions like building more polluting coal and nuclear power plants and demand side energy solutions that reduce climate degrading greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels, killer heat waves, worsening droughts and stronger hurricanes. The city did a lot of other things about energy back in the 1980s. They don't do it any more since apparently "the energy crisis went away."
Could southern Illinois communities do more by example to affect the environment. Of course, the answer is yes! Two solutions have been proposed downstate. Simply buying into some new brokered power purchase plan, as is being explored by state Senator John Bradley, is setting the wrong example. Sure, its a quick political fix to counter citizen complaints about rising utility bills due to the failure of the state legislature to do anything creative or effective about rising Ameren electric and gas rates. Neither does Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole's proposal to use eminent domain to acquire Ameren's utility assets within the city. Both non-solutions do nothing to reduce our region's dependence upon imported energy or the far larger problem of global climate disruption.
Once again, it all comes down to leadership or the lack of it.
No, it's not a bad remake of the 1973 song sung by Vicki Lawrence. It was local governments of these European communities voluntarily turned the lights out to express their concern for climate change across the European continent. The events were scheduled to coincide with the release of a major climate change report that says humans are "very likely" responsible for global warming.
Other European cities took similar publicity oriented actions. Meanwhile, in the USA they didn't go out in Georgia, Carbondale, or anywhere else on the North American continent. More likely, we turned-up our thermostats to counter the increasingly cold winter weather.
Sometimes leaders lead by example. Admitedly the lights-out acts were just token gestures, but they serve as a reminder of what the future could portend and how dependent society has become on centralized power distribution services such as electricity.
The City of Carbondale once taught energy conservation by example. It funded a demonstration house on the SIU campus that showed how either passive or active solar energy systems andcost-effective energy conservation measures could significantly reduce energy consumption and high utility bills. The house was part of a larger municipal program called "The Other Utility" -- a pointed reminder of the difference between supply-side energy solutions like building more polluting coal and nuclear power plants and demand side energy solutions that reduce climate degrading greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels, killer heat waves, worsening droughts and stronger hurricanes. The city did a lot of other things about energy back in the 1980s. They don't do it any more since apparently "the energy crisis went away."
Could southern Illinois communities do more by example to affect the environment. Of course, the answer is yes! Two solutions have been proposed downstate. Simply buying into some new brokered power purchase plan, as is being explored by state Senator John Bradley, is setting the wrong example. Sure, its a quick political fix to counter citizen complaints about rising utility bills due to the failure of the state legislature to do anything creative or effective about rising Ameren electric and gas rates. Neither does Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole's proposal to use eminent domain to acquire Ameren's utility assets within the city. Both non-solutions do nothing to reduce our region's dependence upon imported energy or the far larger problem of global climate disruption.
Once again, it all comes down to leadership or the lack of it.
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