Lights Out a Bright Idea

Greens MLC Ian Cohen today praised the efforts of WWF, as well as the many businesses, schools and organisations involved with Earth Hour, which will see lights switched off around Sydney for an hour tomorrow night.

“This is a great initiative which allow people to be involved in a mass symbolic gesture to show that action can be taken in response to climate change. While one hour may seem like a small step, it is important for people to act together to combat a feeling of helplessness about the enormity of climate change.” Mr Cohen said.

“I congratulate the organisers and all those who will be taking part in the event tomorrow night.

“Once people become involved in positive actions such as this one, I am sure many new ideas will be spawned on how we can all cut greenhouse gas emissions. The people are well and truly ahead of the government when it comes to this issue.

“A proposal I will be pursuing is urging providers of electricity to make Green Power the default choice for new customers. This would be a simple way to encourage greater uptake of renewable energy and would stimulate the clean energy sector.

“Today’s warnings of climate mayhem for Australia by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show just how urgent it is for us to act now to curb emissions.” Mr Cohen said.