Making light of low energy

New initiative marks the solstice with the lights out The wonderfully-named Sloth Club (whom one surely shouldn’t describe as activists) are the ‘driving force’ behind the Candle Night campaign. Members and supporters turn off their electric lights at the midsummer and midwinter solstice, and spend the hours of darkness illuminated only by candles. It’s already big in Japan. Now the club hopes that at this June’s solstice the idea will be taken up internationally, creating - because of the time difference - a ribbon of darkness around the globe. “Imagine if you looked at the earth from, say, the moon, you might be able to follow the dark spot around the earth as it turns,” enthuses Megu’u Ogata of Sloth. Around five million people in Japan participated in the initiative at last year’s summer solstice, some attending high-profile events hosted by leading businesses such as IT giant NEC. But the December 2003 Candle Night was a more personal, home-based affair, celebrated quietly by Sloths as far afield as Australia and Ecuador. Some do it for environmental reasons, says Ogata, and others as a call for peace, but “for some it’s simply about slowing down or spending a peaceful night with family and friends”. - Alison Winward

14 March 2004

Alison Winward