FRANCE: The Eiffel Tower and Paris monuments switch off their lights for five minute to raise awareness about climate change

The Eiffel Tower turns its night-time illuminations off for five minutes to help draw attention to energy consumption and the environment. The Eiffel Tower turned off its illumination for five minutes from 55-19.00 (local time) on Tuesday (October 23) to raise public awareness of global warming. The event was called, for the second time in a few months, by French green groups and was dubbed "Five minutes' break for the Planet". The switch-off came on the eve of a national environment meeting which will be organized by the French government under the aegis of President Nicolas Sarkozy and aimed at discussing environmental issues and the means to cope with them. Scientists and government officials said last February that human activities were causing global warming that may bring more droughts, heat waves and rising seas. At the time, governments and industries were requested to do more to curb greenhouse gases, contributed mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars. But, according to experts, dimming lights for five minutes has a limited impact on the power grid. Some other Paris monuments such as the Elysee Presidential Palace, Paris Town Hall, the Petit Palais exhibition centre, Saint Michel Fountain, Nation Square, or the Champs Elysees Theatre also switched off their lights at 1955 local (1755GMT). Parisians were also requested to turn off their lights at home to support this initiative.

ITN Source | October 29, 2007

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