Mt. A, Sackville to turn Lights Out

Separate events target increasing climate change awareness

By Rebecca Dixon

On Friday, March 20, Mount Allison will be turning off lights all over campus to raise awareness about climate change, and to educate students about practical ways they can reduce their negative impact on the environment.

Lights Out Canada is an international campaign initiated by first-year Mt. A student Keleigh Annau in 2005. Since this beginning it has grown to involve over 100,000 elementary to secondary students around the globe.

The programme may initially seem simple: schools agree to turn off their lights during daylight hours to bring attention to climate change. However, turning off the lights is of secondary importance, says Annau.

“[It] gains everyone’s attention [...] and then stimulates discussion about global warming, and what can be done about it,� she explained.

Carefully-prepared lesson plans and background guides are provided for teachers to use on the day of the event. These detail ways in which individuals can make changes in their own lives, with the hope of inspiring them to do something.

The message “that definitive action on climate change is imperative and that we as youth have enormous power to affect positive change� is the primary goal of Lights Out, said Annau.

Mt. A will be the first university to fully participate in Lights Out. While other schools will be holding the event on April 22 as part of Earth Day, Mt. A is holding it early to ensure maximum participation. Due to the difficulties of incorporating the lesson plans into the university-level class structure, students will be asked to visit the EcoAction Teams website where they can join the Mt. A team. This will allow students to calculate their savings of water, waste, electricity, and GHG emissions based on current behaviours, and to commit to further efforts. As part of the team, the university will be able to track its collective savings.

Ron Byrne, VP International and Student Affairs, is enthusiastic about the university's involvement. He adds that the campaign itself demonstrates that we can all exercise individual responsibility for "making a difference," and that environmental initiatives do not require huge expenditures of funds and/or other resources in order to be successful.

Lights Out ties into other campus environmental efforts on many levels, including the reduction of the university's carbon footprint and the promotion of environmental education. 

However, the day should not interfere with student learning processes or pose any safety hazards, said Annau. Lights are to be turned off where appropriate, and the emphasis should be placed on awareness and visiting the website.

The town of Sackville is also partaking in efforts to raise awareness of the challenges of global warming this month. The town council has approved the town's participation in a similar, though separate, event called Earth Hour. This will take place from 8:30–9:30 p.m. on March 28. The lights in all municipal buildings, aside from the Civic Centre and places where security is a concern, will be turned off for the hour.

The town got involved after receiving a letter about the event, which is being promoted as an “election for the earth.� Each light switch counts as a vote in favour of fighting global warming. The WWF hopes to attain 1 billion votes worldwide and to present the results to world leaders at the decisive Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

Annau reminds us that climate change “is not confined to a certain country or socio-economic class; it will affect everyone and for this reason it is important that we be aware of future implications of our current lifestyles.�

As such, Byrne is pleased to have the university “partner with all of our faculty, staff, and students in keeping environmental sustainability in the forefront of our minds.�


To join the Mount A EcoAction Team go to: www.ecoactionteams.ca
To learn more about Lights Out visit: http://www.lightsoutcanada.tpweb.ca/
For more information on Earth Hour see: http://www.earthhour.org/about/