Overview
- Earth Night, taking place on Friday, September 11, asks residents, businesses and city governments to switch off non‑essential outdoor lighting from dusk and by 22:00 to draw attention to light pollution.
- Several German cities — including Frankfurt, Munich, Kassel and Darmstadt — confirmed coordinated shutdowns of landmark and decorative lighting for the night to participate in the campaign.
- Chemnitz announced that the Karl‑Marx‑Monument will remain unlit all night and the regional utility eins Energie said it will not participate in the local shutdown.
- Conservation groups such as Bund Naturschutz and the Landesbund für Vogelschutz cite evidence that artificial night light attracts and kills insects and disrupts bird orientation and hormone cycles, using those harms to urge lasting changes to lighting practice.
- Organisers and experts recommend practical measures such as lower lumen outputs, fully shielded downward fixtures, warmer color temperatures (around or below 2,700 Kelvin), timers or motion sensors, and eliminating decorative night lighting, and they see Earth Night as distinct from the one‑hour climate‑focused Earth Hour.