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See the original image at ecogeek.org —

In order to save on energy, the Eiffel tower cuts lighting

ecogeek.org — Twenty thousand light bulbs were added to the Eiffel Tower to mark the new millennium, and because people like things that sparkle, the tower is lit every night for 10 minutes. However, Paris officials have decided to cut back and light the tower for just five minutes per night.

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  • allaboutdatiki, on 09/04/2008, -2/+20How about some specifics on the bulbs used? Are they conventional or LED?
    • SVOboy, on 09/04/2008, -0/+11Good point, xenon 6000w bulbs according to this: http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/documentation ...

      Lotta watts
      • zyklon, on 09/04/2008, -1/+2ONE POINT TWEN... Eh ***** it, you get the idea.
      • wakkow, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2Hmm, further down it mentions the lighting system implemented June 2003 containing 20,000 bulbs and 120kW of power. That means 6W per bulb.
    • slowmo, on 09/04/2008, -9/+5They don't have LEDs in France yet.
      • gasoline, on 09/04/2008, -4/+6Yeah, they were able to build Airbus A380, but don't have any LEDs yet.
        Oh those frog-eaters, lulz!
      • clsslc, on 09/04/2008, -0/+1What about halogens?
      • Lionhart, on 09/04/2008, -1/+8Did you really just say that? It's not like the French are some backwater country. They're kicking our (US) asses in energy.
      • altgeeky1, on 09/04/2008, -1/+3Oh geez, another conservative French-basher... offended that France took an early stand against evil in WWII, huh?
      • AmericansFirst, on 09/04/2008, -4/+1You'd think they'd save enough energy by not bathing.
      • Lionhart, on 09/04/2008, -1/+1You just pride yourself on being ignorant don't you? Let me guess you're one of those people that think America is the greatest country ever but has never even been to another country right?
      • AmericansFirst, on 09/04/2008, -0/+0Why would I ever want to leave the greatest country in America?
      • slowmo, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2My sarcasm was lost on a few of you, so ponder this awesomeness:

        http://www.lta-products.com/images/France%20cap.gi ...
    • Prosequi, on 09/04/2008, -1/+6For CO2 purposes it probably doesn't matter, France is mostly powered by nuc's - about 75% IIRC.
      • gasoline, on 09/04/2008, -2/+2Indeed, nuclear power plants don't emit CO2, but what about the mining of nuclear fuel?
      • oscenester, on 09/04/2008, -1/+2and what to do with the nuclear waste that we have no idea what do with...hm.

        But still, dogging on france? get the ***** outa heeeere
      • mercano, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2Well, France mostly just reprocesses thier nuclear waste to make more fuel. They wind up with very little actual waste. Problem is most countries don't like other people reprocessing because its an easy way to get weapons-grade nuclear materials.
    • cawpin, on 09/04/2008, -0/+3How about not submitting the same ***** 3 days after it was front paged?

      http://digg.com/environment/Eiffel_Tower_s_Lights_ ...
  • pingpants, on 09/04/2008, -3/+13City of Lights Out
    • KingBabi, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2It's not a very bright idea.

      Paris is already a very dark city at night; walk around past 1 or so and even around the Champs Elysees and as you can plainly not see, it's very somber; they have very minimalist lighting.
      • ilikepai, on 09/09/2008, -0/+1The sparkly ten minutes of light hardly made the streets any brighter, and I don't think you can go so far as to call it "minimalist" lighting. At night, cities shouldn't be so lit up that it's like 2 in the afternoon.
  • Ninh, on 09/04/2008, -9/+7That's gonna save billions of tons of CO2. Oh wait no, they'll wear out the bulbs twice as fast so they will need costly replacements, never mind.
    • Laminarcissus, on 09/04/2008, -0/+9They're going to wear them out faster by cutting the *blinking* time in half?
  • miatman, on 09/04/2008, -0/+12actually it is lit every hour after dark for 10 minutes
  • o5rob5o, on 09/04/2008, -1/+9in order to save on energy required to search, stories get duplicated.
    • fquednau, on 09/04/2008, -1/+1In Soviet Russia, stories duplicate you.
  • SanyaG, on 09/04/2008, -7/+3WEAK
  • pathouston22, on 09/04/2008, -10/+31I'll turn on 20 thousand light bulbs to offset this move.

    And to piss off all the digg eco-nazis!
    • fegul, on 09/04/2008, -0/+10It's your money...
      • pathouston22, on 09/04/2008, -6/+0Why is why the whole green movement is a sham. Its not about the enviornment, its about saving money on energy.
    • americamatrix, on 09/04/2008, -0/+8Use it when YOU need it.
  • ekk0, on 09/04/2008, -1/+6Solar power that beast already geeze!
    • boneit, on 09/04/2008, -1/+2Paris has more hours of of cloud cover than London, and that's saying something. Why solar? The French have been big on nuclear power stations for a very long time. There's no huge CO2 output from that country.
  • TheBogie, on 09/04/2008, -12/+3Those frenchies are always doing things half assed.

    That's why they got ass owned three ways til Sunday at the Olympics.

    Way to finish strong Pierre!
    • DeuceDiggalow, on 09/04/2008, -1/+5What the ***** are you talking about? Have you tried their bread? The ***** is amazing!!
      • TheBogie, on 09/04/2008, -5/+2I haven't eaten french bread since 9/11.

        I don't eat french vanilla ice cream either. Just in case.
      • bicyclethief, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2So you must hate the Statue of Liberty too then huh?

        *****.
  • benbrooks101, on 09/04/2008, -0/+1I think Digg knows about this when it hit the front page last week.
  • Prosequi, on 09/04/2008, -1/+5That's a shame - it is/was very beautiful.
  • jlee2081, on 09/04/2008, -1/+3shame, its quite a sight when lit up at night.
  • av4rice, on 09/04/2008, -4/+2http://digg.com/environment/Eiffel_Tower_s_Lights_ ...
  • DeuceDiggalow, on 09/04/2008, -1/+3We want lights! We want lights!
  • VigRoco, on 09/04/2008, -1/+8If they are like 75% powered by nucs, why does this really matter?
  • bremstrong, on 09/04/2008, -1/+4Putting in LED based lights would give a better message, that smarter solutions allow a nice lifestyle while consuming less resources.

    LEDs are still not competitive, but early purchasers let the technology come down the cost / performance curve by funding development.
  • drunkenkite, on 09/04/2008, -1/+4wasnt this already posted like two days ago?
  • clinko, on 09/04/2008, -5/+7Just a good piece of trivia and another great reason to hate the french (Not that you need another):

    Paris cleans their streets by opening hydrants, then sweeping the trash into the water flow. This isn't 1 street, or a particular area. They clean the ENTIRE city by flooding the streets. It's impossible to walk to/from the Metro without jumping a stream.

    They turn off the lights for the environment before fixing this?:

    http://flickr.com/photos/delski/29088073/
    • Zaxcomp, on 09/04/2008, -0/+3Better than driving diesel street cleaners around everywhere, I would suppose.

      Especially if they reclaim the water and treat it...
      • Altesse, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2> Better than driving diesel street cleaners around everywhere, I would suppose.

        Exactly. And even better than going to the shop a few yards away in a Hummer.

        > Especially if they reclaim the water and treat it...

        That we do. Actually, if I'm not mistaken, the water we use to clean the streets is already
        recycled water.
    • Ksimir, on 09/05/2008, -0/+1I would love to read your "great reasons to hate the French"...
      Maybe there's one relevant in the pile of ignorant *****, for once :)
  • Diggnabbit, on 09/04/2008, -0/+15Interestingly, there's a copyright issue involved here, too. The lights on the Eiffel Tower are a copyrighted work of art, but the Eiffel Tower itself is not (the lights were added much later). So, in movies and stuff, it's free to show the unlit Eiffel Tower, but you have to pay (the French government, I think) to show it lit up.
    • Farmer77, on 09/04/2008, -0/+7The More You Know

      *Cue streaking star with a rainbow trail*
  • DarkBlueAnt, on 09/04/2008, -4/+0They should use those wacky, new energy saving bulbs. Those things are actually pretty powerful and the shape would give the Tower a fresh look ;)
  • britblogger, on 09/04/2008, -1/+2last week's news.
  • stonebear, on 09/04/2008, -1/+3I believe that Parisians have mixed feelings about the lights anyway; garish nonsense on their pride-and -joy being part of the generalized selling out of their culture to moneyed interests such as the tourism industry. Of course; Paris IS supposed to be the city of lights, and the ten minute show was a pretty good compromise, so they bite their tongue about it. This cutback is rather a small, low hanging fruit that will never-the-less get a lot of good publicity for Paris, and increase the Eiffel’s profit margin as well. Shrewd stunt, but I don’t see the French prematurely snuffing out their cigarettes and rushing to green their home and business lighting because of it.
  • TheBogie, on 09/04/2008, -9/+4The statue of liberty is American.

    Since it doesn't contain the word "french" like french fries, french dressing, french vanilla (all of which I no longer eat) it is not french.

    It is not the statue of french. It is the statue of liberty.
    • Wytchy, on 09/04/2008, -2/+8Except for the fact that it was a GIFT to the U.S. from France. Wih the majority of Americans now anti-France, the morally correct thing to do would be ship it back to them.

      Not sure what they would do with it, but since France seems to be so derided in America now, it's not good manners to keep their gift.
      • Altesse, on 09/04/2008, -1/+3> the morally correct thing to do would be ship it back to them.

        No thanks, we already have one (on the Seine, a bit different and smaller replica).

        > Not sure what they would do with it, but since France seems to be so derided in America now,
        > it's not good manners to keep their gift.

        And actually, our current administration is pro-U.S. (a bit too much, if you ask me). So, keep your gift, you could receive some more in the near future.
    • Ksimir, on 09/05/2008, -0/+2Why do you hate France so much ?
  • Kristiantorsten, on 09/04/2008, -2/+0good, man. It's good for the environment.
  • aenima987, on 09/04/2008, -1/+1I bet they're so pleased with themselves. All in all, the energy used to power the Eiffel tower's lights is not vast. All it will achieve is making the attraction less exciting.
  • chamberlanderic, on 09/04/2008, -1/+2Save energy ? people are paying to go up that thing ! its a tourist attraction...it's not like leaving the basement light on when your not there!
  • Scottathon, on 09/04/2008, -0/+1They should get rid of the lights all together. It's really tacky.
    • Wytchy, on 09/04/2008, -0/+1It's tacky with or without the lights, imho. It looks like an Erector set toy thing.

      They did a much better job in designing the Statue of Liberty that they gifted to the U.S. But now we should return the Statue of Liberty since as a whole, the U.S. has been pissed at France for not getting behind the U.S. since Bush issued the ultimatum, 'You're either with us or against us.'

      Remember 'Freedom Fries' from a few years ago?
      • Stemp, on 09/04/2008, -0/+2Keep it, it's a gift.
        And BTW inside the statue of Liberty there is an Eiffel structure.
  • mugupo, on 09/04/2008, -0/+0Would U.S. does the same like turn off the light in the statue of liberty? very unlikely here.
  • LizardCynic, on 09/04/2008, -1/+1Wonder if they could save energy by getting half of the population to jump off the top ?
  • JesseJ, on 09/04/2008, -1/+4I'm 100% for saving energy, but I think this is just plain stupid.
  • lornali, on 09/05/2008, -1/+1Good decision
  • alettieri, on 09/09/2008, -0/+1meh. Could do without the lights.
  • jpowell180, on 09/15/2008, -0/+1Hippie *****, it'll accomplish no real good for "(The Earth)".
    Keeping it lighted would atract more business, etc.
    Sometimes human beings are so ***** stupid.
    Seriously, this green ***** is ***** illogical and the only real goal of the ***** greens (at leat thier masters) is to drive human beings back in a cave (like Ms Newkirk wants) instead of remaining the dominant form of life on the surface fo the Earth.
    If that bitch had a capsule with a virus that would solely eliminate the human race (only) from the face of the Eath, I'd bet, like Davros, she would break it and let the virus free.
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