Last June 21, millions of Londoners joined the campaign to raise awareness on climate change. London turned off its lights from 9-10 PM during this night in an effort to make a difference for the environment.

An estimated 2 million light bulbs went out around the capital, saving roughly 750 MWh of electricity in just one hour – enough to run 3,000 televisions for a year.

Homes, shops, businesses, the Buckingham Palace, and Tony Blair participated in this noteworthy endeavor, showing to the rest of the world that London is a green city that respects the earth. Even the Piccadilly Circus Advertising Lights went out for the first time since World War Two! That is just amazing.

Check out the video of this event:

This is again another success story that can be replicated in other places. I admire London, its people and leaders, for their sense of environmentalism in spite of its first-world status. They are not afraid to give back to the environment what they have taken from it. For your social conscience, London, you are now close to my heart.

Know more about this initiative…

The music scene is definitely aware of the increasing need to decrease one’s carbon footprint. The Premises, a recording studio in London, has installed photovoltaic cells on its roof around last year to save energy and ultimately, money on the long term.

This just shows that businesses can take advantage of modern technology to be more earth-friendly.

I was doing my usual internet surfing. I checked out Yahoo! Answers for the newest questions on the environment and guess what I found?! I found Matt Dillon asking “What are the most effective yet simple ways people can save energy?”

Looks like Yahoo! Answers is employing this strategy-celebrity question-to get people talking about a specific topic. It’s a good thing. Matt’s question, to date, has generated 2,734 answers (soon to be 2,735 after I answer it, haha). Note: Worldwatch Institute founder also gave out an answer. Well, for an advocate of energy efficiency, this is a laudable move. At least, Yahoo! is making something out of its popularity..

I’m sooo luvin’ Yahoo! now. Want to answer Matt Dillon’s question?

The issue of climate change and global warming have been on the forefront of environment news lately. Erratic changes in the weather and hot days continue to surge unexpectedly. Storms are fiercer. Hurricanes visit often like a close relative. Extinction of species are on an upward trend. The consequences of man’s invasive actions towards nature are now being felt.

I saw an article at Bloomberg.com, saying that Thailand has decided to intensify its coal-burning capacity. The news saddened me. I remembered my fellow environmental youth advocates from Thailand. I met them in 2004 in Germany and I sensed that there was so much passion in them to make a change in their country. But with decisions such as this, it will just make the task too arduous for them.

This was the entire batch of environmental envoys in 2004.

If you want to know more about the news story, read on:
Thailand’s Coal-Power Drive Sparks Health, Environment Outcry
By Beth Jinks and Suttinee Yuvejwattana

March 20 (Bloomberg) — Suratin Maleehuan has seen cases of respiratory disease climb 70 percent in two years at the 30-bed hospital he runs near Thailand’s biggest factory complex. He’s horrified by plans to boost the kingdom’s coal-burning capacity.

“The health problems are already too much to handle,” said Suratin, a doctor in the town of Map Ta Phut in the east, where a third coal-fired power plant opened in October to help fuel more than 200 smokestacks. “For sure when we have new coal plants, the problems will be more.”

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