Calgarians are still in the dark about energy conservation after a poor showing for this weekend’s Earth Hour, says a local alderman.
Ald. Brian Pincott said he’s disappointed that few Calgarians opted to power down Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. to join a growing worldwide movement, calling it “perplexing” in a city that has made significant environmental strides elsewhere.
“We are environmentally schizophrenic,” he said. “It’s unbelievably disappointing. Turning your lights off is the simplest thing you can do and for people to be so completely disengaged is discouraging.”
Enmax spokeswoman Doris Kaufmann said Calgary showed a smidgen of improvement over last year’s Earth Hour efforts by actually seeing power consumption drop from the normal average, albeit only by one per cent. Considering Earth Hour 2008 actually saw Calgary’s power use spike higher than average, Kaufmann said even a drop is a big step.
“One could say they are getting the message to some degree,” she said.
