by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

You can call New York City a energy-consuming city, but you could also say that most of it serves a small footprint. Take away the autos and you have Venice - sort of. Whether you love it or hate it - when NYC speaks, many people listen. And a 84 foot lighted Holiday Tree speaks loudly.

The 75th annual tree-lighting happened on November 28th but their was more than sparkling lights to cheer. This year the 60 year-old Spruce held 30,000 L.E.D.s (light-emitting diodes) powered by solar panels on the roof of Rockefeller Plaza. Officials project will save as much energy a day as an average family uses in a month (or perhaps 4 Manhattan-sized apartments).

Tishman Speyer, the co-owner and manager of Rockefeller Center, says the carbon emissions created by cutting and transporting the tree will be offset and the lumber to be used later by Habitat for Humanity. Read more here.

White House - can you hear me now?

HO HO HO and Merry Christmas, Tao

Tags: community, culture, entertainment, history

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Green Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.