County joins in on Lights Out Santa Barbara

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Lights out! That’s what anyone passing by the Santa Barbara County Courthouse will see tonight between 8 and 9.
It’s not because the Board of Supervisors forgot to pencil the day into their nine-figure budget, but because they joined a grassroots effort that stretches from San Francisco to Los Angeles that encourages people to send the message of conservation through simply turning out the lights.

“It’s doing our part to help with global warming issues, reduce consumption and think a little more about conservation,” said First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal. “It’s a simple action and simple step.”
Carbajal was first told about the effort called Lights Out Santa Barbara by Phyllis de Picciotto, a grandmother of five whose passion for the simple gesture of turning off the lights is symbolic of the entire effort, which has quickly gathered momentum.
After the call from Picciotto, Carbajal said he contacted the county’s General Services Department to ask about the feasibility of turning off all of the courthouse’s nonessential lights, which turned out to be a reasonable request.
Picciotto began organizing the local effort to turn off the lights after reading about Lights Out San Francisco, which will also be held this evening and notorious lights there, such as those on the Golden Gate and Bay bridges will be turned off for an hour.
Along with conserving electricity, if enough people did turn out the lights in San Francisco and Los Angeles, some say it will help reduce light pollution to the extent that the stars will be easier to view.
Picciotto said she realizes not everybody will turn off their lights and simply hopes the event will raise awareness.
“It never was intended to be a total blackout in the whole city,” she said. “It’s about awareness and how to use less.”
Picciotto said she initially wanted to hold Lights Out Santa Barbara in the spring, but when she found out Los Angeles and San Francisco were going to shut off the lights tonight, she decided to do so as well.
But at that point, Picciotto said she had just more than three weeks to get as many municipalities on board as she could. As of yesterday, she said the City of Santa Barbara and City of Goleta both had been vocally supportive of the effort and Rep. Lois Capps is also on board.
Had Picciotto had more time, she said she would have liked to visit each city council in the county and put to work the countless ideas she and others have come up with since the organizing effort began.
She said one of the best parts about the lights out effort is that all of the organization occurred at the grassroots level.
“You can go really fast,” Picciotto said. “There’s no organization, no non-profit, no meetings, no dues, no fundraising, you don’t have to spend your energy on anything but the goal.”
Picciotto said one of her favorite experiences so far was speaking to a 5th grade class at Harding Elementary School about conservation and global warming.
“I went there and we had this great conversation and they inspired me,” Picciotto said. “They wrote a pledge about what they would do on Oct. 20 and into the future.”
Picciotto said she hopes future lights out events will be focused in the classroom.
Picciotto said she’s not sure if she’ll spearhead the next lights out effort, which San Francisco is planning for March 29 and will be called “Lights Out America,” but said she hopes to see larger local environmental groups take up the effort.
While it will be difficult to calculate whether the local lights out effort will make a dent in energy consumption, Picciotto and Carbajal both said the point is for those who participate to consciously think about the ways they consume and the lights they need and don’t need.
While one courthouse and a couple of houses won’t likely make a huge difference, Carbajal noted that this kind of event can pick up speed and remind people that though all one person can often do is take care of themselves, together with millions of others, change is possible.
“This is an example of reminding us that we should never feel hopeless,” Carbajal said. “It gives us all hope and reminds us that we can do our part.”
More information about Lights Out Santa Barbara is available at www.lightsoutsb.org.