Christmas News

At Christmas time, some homeowners are willing to spend whatever it takes on energy costs to have the best light display on the block.
But now everyone can get inspiration for a “greener christmas”.

A Seaside town is to become the UK’s first to run its Christmas lights by solar power. Above the top of the tree is a solar panel, which converts light into electricity, which is then stored in the battery. When darkness falls, the lights switch on automatically. A total of 88 of the 3ft artificial trees will be displayed on 44 lamp posts throughout the festive season, making it a green Christmas for residents.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is also going “greener” — with energy-saving lights replacing old-fashioned bulbs on the towering evergreen this year.

Using the energy-efficient LEDs to replace incandescent bulbs will reduce the display’s electricity consumption from 3,510 to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day. The daily savings is equal to the amount of electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house in a month.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he hoped the change to the midtown Manhattan display will inspire the tens of millions of New Yorkers and tourists who see the tree every year.

“Now they will see an example of green leadership which may inspire them to make greener choices in their own lives,” Bloomberg said last week.

For the inhabitants of a small town nestled on Lake Erie in the northeastern United States, Xmas has come unexpectedly early in the form of a 100-million-dollar gift from an anonymous donor!

According to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and AFP a benefactor identified only as “anonymous friend” made the donation to a group of charitable and non-profit causes in the town of Erie, Pennsylvania. Erie is the state’s fourth-largest city with a population of 104,000. The town could use the money. About 19 per cent of the town’s population are classified as poor — twice the US average. Median household income is $31,196 against $48,451 nationally, and in 2006, it had an estimated 400 homeless people.

Town of Eire

The donor reportedly put no restrictions on how the money should be spent, but the town’s community foundation had decided to give between one and two million dollars to a host of local good causes. The head of the town’s community foundation, Mike Batchelor, told the Tribune-Review he was sworn to secrecy over the donor’s identity, refusing to say even whether the anonymous benefactor was still alive.

But according to the report, local beneficiaries including a food bank for the homeless, a women’s center and a group caring for the blind are more than happy to respect the donor’s wish to remain anonymous.

Biggest givers

The world’s top 5 most generous philanthropists (BusinessWeek’s 2006 ranking)

1 Warren Buffet CEO Berkshire Hathaway $40.7bn estimated lifetime giving to health, education, humanitarian causes
2 Bill and Melinda Gates Microsoft co-founders $28bn to health and development
3 George Soros Investor, $5.9bn to “Open and democratic societies”
4 Gordon and Betty Moore Intel co-founders $7.4bn to Environment, science
5 Herbert and Marion Sandler Golden West financial company co-founders $1.4bn to stem cell research, education