Sunday, September 30, 2007

We are Lights Out Miami

Hello and welcome to our blog,

We are Lights Out Miami, a grassroots community group now organizing a citywide energy savings event on Saturday, March 29, 2008. On this night, we invite the entire city of Miami, including businesses, city and federal government agencies, schools, and individuals to turn off all non-essential lighting to save energy.

We started with a local event in San Francisco for which we created a template and lessons learned that can be applied in creating similar events in cities throughout the country. In the process of building Lights Out San Francisco we were contacted by people in cities across the country, and even around the world, in hopes of organizing Lights Out events in their own towns. Miami is now on board.

You may ask: what good does one hour do? What do we hope to accomplish?

Today, the United States consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases than any other country in the world. Our nation's growing appetite for energy must be controlled to protect our planet from the effects of the climate crisis.

We estimate that turning lights out for even one hour could save as much as 15 percent of the energy consumed in Miami on an average Saturday night. This savings will reduce carbon emissions into our air, preserve the natural resources used to produce this energy, set a positive precedent for the rest of the world, and result in ongoing reduced costs to citizens and businesses.

Please join us in turning out your non-essential lights on Saturday, March 29, 2008, and stay tuned here for more information.

If you would like to get involved in Lights Out Miami, please email
info@lightsoutmiami.org
.

Warm regards,

The Lights Out Miami Team