Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier joins Earth Hour in its “Use Your Power To Change Climate Change” mantra with a one-hour, “lights-off” on the world-famous Pacific Wheel Ferris wheel, except for the wheel rim safety lighting, at 8:30 pm this Saturday, March 28. The Pacific Wheel is the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel.
Earth Hour is WWF’s global environmental movement. As one of the first open-sourced climate change campaigns, Earth Hour has grown from a symbolic event in one city to the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment.
In 2014, Earth Hour engaged individuals, businesses and organizations in over 7,000 cities and 162 countries and territories during the hour and beyond. In 2015, Earth Hour aims to harness the power of its millions of supporters worldwide to change climate change.
Earth Hour states its mission is: “uniting people to protect the planet. We are an open source movement organized by WWF and volunteer organizations worldwide.”
“Pacific Park looks forward to participating each year in Earth Hour to help underscore our commitment to the environment,” said Jeff Klocke, Vice President of Marketing and Administration at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. “In addition to being home to the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel, we work hard to be a leader in our industry and community for green initiatives and sustainability.”
Pacific Park was awarded “Excellence in Stewardship of the Natural Environment” at the 15th annual Sustainable Quality Awards presented by the City of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and the nonprofit Sustainable Works.
Standing 130 feet above the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Wheel features 160,000 energy-efficient LED lights that present dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment each evening. The eco-friendly, enhanced LED lighting provides 75 percent greater energy savings than most Ferris wheel’s traditional incandescent bulbs.
Pacific Park also introduced the world’s first wind-powered amusement park game, the High Striker, on Oct. 2011. All components of the High Striker were completely wind-powered including the chaser lights with more than 100 bulbs, multiple spotlights and sound system.
