"5 Minutes of Respite for the Planet"

French environmental group L'Alliance pour la Planète is urging people all over the world to turn out their lights and other electrical gadgets for five minutes at 19:55 (GMT+1hr -- that's 13:55, or 1:55 PM Eastern time) tomorrow, February 1, to give the planet and electrical grids a break and raise awareness about global warming. The "blackout" has been timed to fall on the eve of the release of the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change, which will happen in Paris on Friday, February 2. While the event will have a much more dramatic effect in Europe (since it'll still be daylight here in the States), it's still worth lending the IPCC (and the planet) a show of solidarity and unplugging for a few minutes; we encourage TreeHuggers around the globe to mark your calendars and unplug for five minutes tomorrow. It isn't quite as wacky as World Jump Day, and, at least this time, we know for sure what'll happen when we synchronize to ease up on carbon emissions. ::L'Alliance pour la Planète via ::Hippyshopper