Lights out for Earth Hour

New Haven (WTNH) - Flipping a switch to make a difference. "Earth Hour" was a world-wide effort Saturday night to save energy by turning off the lights.

People were asked to turn off their lights between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.

During that hour, Bob Crelin, a local activist from Branford who has worked most of his life fighting light pollution, spoke to people at the Yale Observatory.

Crelin says there are numerous benefits to redirecting light or simply turning the lights off.

"It's basically saying, we can do a simple little thing like this to show, turning off the lights," he said. "Maybe there are some lights that are not necessarily important all the time. It's been customary in recent generations to use lighting by flipping switches all the time, and not thinking about what impact it may have."

Crelin got Branford to adopt legislation to reduce light pollution.

Earth Hour was sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund.