Google turned off the "light"

Can I just say I love Google? Being the festive person I am, I love when they recognize holidays Google-style. However, it's great when they can leverage their visibility to draw attention to something greater.

Today, Google put the "lights out" on their home page in order to encourage people around the world to celebrate Earth Hour. According to Google, on Saturday, March 29, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. in their local time zone. Created by the World Wildlife Fund, cities around the world will be participating in Earth Hour to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation. The U.S. cities leading the charge are Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco.

The first major landmark to go dark was the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge in Australia last night. Sydney followed Fiji and New Zealand who kicked off the blackout, and an estimated 20 other major cities and 300 smaller towns will follow suit. Sydney inspired this worldwide movement as they launched this annual "lights out" hour last year, says the Sydney Morning Herald.

So what's the affect of all this darkness on the environment? The impact this year will make is unknown, but the launch in Sydney last year involved 2.2 million people and more than 2,000 businesses who shut off lights and appliances, resulting in a 10.2 percent reduction in carbon emissions during that hour.

So, I'll think I'll participate. I have one million candles lying around the house, anyway. And I like the idea of being part of something bigger.

No idea what to do for one hour in the dark? That's pathetic.

Pretty Trash

Right now, everything is "going green" or "eco-friendly." I feel a little passe with my non-hybrid car everytime I go to the gas pump. However, I am finding I really do like an off-shoot of this trend - using things that are usually deemed as trash to make something much more pretty, art.

Case in point, Tara Donovan's upcoming exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opening this Tuesday, November 20, that makes larger-than-life installations out of ordinary objects you'd find around the house like tape and drinking straws. So instead of piling up in a dump, or on a beach like Styrofoam beads are want to do, it becomes pretty amazing art that you can pay a $20 suggested donation to see. I'd love to see something like this Stryofoam cup extravaganza. Tara's also got about 18,000 graphite pencils on display at BEDFORD Gallery in Walnut Creek, Calif. through December 22, 2007. Bay area friends, check it out!

Also, like the Blueprint blog, Bluelines, I am a very big fan of Chris Natrop's lovely paper pieces. I instantly thought of Tord Boontje, too (anyone looking for an over-priced Christmas gift for me? It would be Boontje's beautiful and quite heavy coffee book, thanks.) Natrop has a piece called "Super City Spin" over at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., that I might just be tempted to check out.

But what I'm really interested in is the lasercut free-flowing paper constructions from his site like the pretty one to the left. He also has a book that you can download for free, check it out.

Peter Calleson also makes some crazy large-scale paper installations (and works on snow, ice and water...wow.)

So, lesson learned - there's actually a LOT more to supposed trash than meets the eye. Maybe next time you want to throw out that pizza box, you can repurpose it to make an oil painting or something.