On March 29th, people everywhere turned off their lights–to make a statement, to help find new ways to reduce their impact on the environment. (See our previous Earth Day blog post for more info) I imagine, because of the time zone difference (it happened 8-9pm in “your home” time zone), it’s incredibly hard to measure the world wide impact in one fell swoop.

However, here is the initial impact reported from Chicago:

According to electric utility Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), during the 8 pm to 9 pm duration, Chicago saved about 7 percent in energy. The 818 megawatt hours of electricity saved are equivalent to nearly 1.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions or taking two 400-megawatt coal plants offline for one hour.

If you’d like to read more, visit Electronic House Magazine. Remember, Earth Hour wants to help raise awareness world wide by this symbolic action, the energy savings is merely a bonus!