Earth Hour: now what?

Between 8 and 9 p.m. on Saturday night the city of Toronto was temporarily transformed into a darker, mysterious and subdued version of itself. Public buildings and businesses around the city shut off non-essential lights to participate in Earth Hour. The event began last year in Sydney, Australia and has spread to major cities worldwide. Numerous downtown landmarks were eerily dark during the event: Dundas Square, the Eaton Centre, and even the CN Tower were all significantly dimmer. A few stars could even be spotted in the normally blacked-out sky.

The aftermath of Earth Hour raises some significant questions: what's next for Toronto with regards to energy policy? What lessons have been learned from the exercise? Now that it has been demonstrated that Toronto can safely function with a limited amount of light, why not dim them once a month? Or consider subdued lighting for some unnecessary fixtures on a regular basis? The idea of Earth Hour is nice, and inevitably led some to rethink our reliance on energy. But without any significant change, Earth Hour is little more then an encouraging gesture.