On Saturday, March 29, 2008, ecoSanity.org joined a crowd of more than 10,000 at the Earth Hour concert featuring Nelly Furtado at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Canada. Other performers included The Philosopher Kings and Fefe Dobson.
Mega-sponsor Virgin Mobile‘s (Richard Branson‘s) representative, Nathan Rosenberg, began his speech with the unfortunate statement, “Branson has been so supportive of global warming“. He then went on to defend Virgin’s aviation and spaceflight obsessed empire by praising their recent, first-ever, biofueled flight (scroll down for some articles about why biofuel and aviation aren’t such good things).
Rosenberg concluded by praising Branson’s multi-million dollar prize offer to anyone who can solve the problem of how to sequester (remove) CO2 from the atmosphere, teasing that, if anyone has any ideas, they can become instant millionaires – as though wealth, not humanitarianism, would be a person’s prime motivation for such an effort.
On Sunday, the day after Earth Hour, Global News did not include mention of their senior weather person, Susan Hay, despite her having hosted the entire Toronto event. We wonder if it may have had something to do with her choice of apparel; what appeared to be a fur – or at least faux fur – coat, leather gloves and shoes. Not the best ensemble for a WWF (World Wildlife Fund) initiative.
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More about Earth Hour: EarthHour.org
Dark city, bright idea
Toronto Star, Peter Gorrie, March 30, 2008
Canadians go dark with world for Earth Hour
CBC, March 29, 2008
Some bad things about air travel:
A revolution in the skies…A disaster for the planet
The Independent, Simon Calder, March 1, 2008
All about planes
CNN, Rachel Oliver, November 6, 2007
U.S., China agree to double flights (by 2012)
Washington Post, Ariana Eunjun Cha and Del Quentin Wilber, May 24, 2007
Air traffic out of control
George Monbiot, The Guardian, May 9, 2007
Some bad things about biofuels:
An agricultural crime against humanity
Monbiot.com, George Monbiot, November 6, 2007
Production of biofuels ‘is a crime’
The Independent, Edith M. Lederer, October 27, 2007
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