Can the lights be switched off?

Seventh annual Dark-Sky Week celebration The International Dark-Sky Week will occur from April 20 to April 26, 2009. This year the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) Dark Skies Awareness Global Cornerstone Project is endorsing the event on a global level as the International Dark Skies Week (IDSW), part of IYA2009's dark skies preservation efforts.

IDSW encourages people to turn of their unnecessary outdoor lights in order to temporarily reduce light pollution. National Dark-Sky Week website states:

Light pollution is a hazy blanket of light in the atmosphere caused by improper lighting fixtures which direct light up into the sky instead of down toward the ground. Not only does light pollution waste energy, but it also creates great problems for stargazers. This "blanket of light" causes the beauty of the night sky to fade, and if the problem of light pollution is not addressed now, we are destined to lose the beauty of the cosmos that have been a part of human civilization since its beginning.

IDSW, in effect, is actually an extension of the Earth Hour that was celebrated on 28^th March as both events encourage you to switch off the lights.

Although Earth Hour was billed as an incredible success internationally, I did not particularly see any considerable difference in the number of stars seen from Male' between 8:00 – 9:00pm that night. Although a considerable amount of promotion was done leading up to the event I was dissappointed to see that only a couple of businesses and household actually turned off their lights within the hour – not enough to show any real difference to the night sky.

Different people have different opinions as to why Earth Hour did not really work here, the main three being that:

• turning off the lights doesn't really help the environment;
  
• the people are not aware or not concerned enough; and
  
• a major portion of the youth who wants to rebel against any kind of established programmes.
  

I was initially planning on celebrating IDSW at some level here in the Maldives through the Maldives Science Society by associating with the Scout Association and with different schools. However the experience of Earth Hour made me hesitant. A lot of questions have been going through my head about this. Can such an event be successfully carried out in the Maldives? If so, is the involvement of the government necessary? Or can the civil society carry it out independently? What needs to be done to get the full backing of the youth and the public in general?