A city’s essence is captured by its skyline and an illuminated evening cityscape can be a beautiful sight. However, as part of a two month pilot program, Boston will lose its familiar nighttime silhouette. Starting on September 3rd the city will darken its tallest and most characteristic buildings by 11pm each night in an effort to raise awareness about energy conservation (and save some dough in the process!). The plan will effectively squelch all lights from the 30th floor and up through 5am the following morning and should save 25% of the energy used for lighting the 34 skyscrapers that have agreed to participate.
Particularly reminiscent of the nightly blackouts during WWII to protect against bombing raids the feel of Boston at night will be very different due to the darkness. Although that may be an extreme parallel the theme of using darkness to protect prevails. Another interesting benefit will be on the migratory habits of birds during their autumn commute. Natural migration routes can be altered by the bright city lights coming from major metropolitan hubs. Since the program will be in effect through much of the fall these birds may be able to take their preferred flight paths.
That being said, certain safety lighting for aircraft will remain on due to regulations. If Mayor Tom Menino keeps the plan in place Lights Out Boston will be the first for a major city using a year round citywide conservation program of this nature.
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I hope they keep this up… “should save 25% of the energy used for lighting the 34 skyscrapers that have agreed to participate” this is electricity and resources that absolutely need to be conserved.
As the co-founder of an environmental company living in Boston, I notice every little green move that Boston makes. I saw that the skyline was a bit dark the other day. They must have been practicing or something since today is Sept. 3. I’m glad to see such a bold move. Keep it up Boston (and Cambridge)!
In the end, this is a necessary move. In general, I think one of the best things we can do is support ‘green business.’ For example, http://www.simplestop.net stops your postal junk mail and benefits the environment.
will certainly be looking for this from my roof in Inman Square
Saving power at night by shutting off the lights in sky scrapers sounds good! Can I use this juice for my plug in car and translate this savings into smaller oil imports, reducing the trade deficit and interest being paid on loans from China to buy oil from the OPEC pirates! Soon, the OPEC pirates will have fewer countries to blackmail, because the smaller countries will follow our example, and the smaller countries will have more money to spend on the world markets for products other than oil – maybe American products! That means jobs for us! Holy Shit! this looks like an upward spiral in our favor! you may have turned the downward oil/money sewer into something good! keep up the good work!
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