Lights out in City of Light

By next month the Eiffel Tower will lose its sparkle when thousands of twinkling light bulbs are cut. All in a green initiative to make the Eiffel Tower and other monuments more environmentally friendly.

This latest green initiative comes just after the "city of light" completed a massive five-year energy saving plan to replace the standard incandescent light bulbs with metal iodide light bulbs on 125 of its monuments.

The new bulbs have five times more energy efficiency and last much longer.

Now, just 218 kilowatts are necessary to power the floodlights on the 280 Paris monuments, down 927 kilowatts from what was needed before to make the city glow. The city's power bill has been divided by four as a result.

Seeing the the Eiffel Tower dressed in diamonds every night is one of my fondest memories of my time in Paris. There she was, every night sparkling just like the the grand old lady she is. But every little bit counts and to be honest it is waist of electricity and not necessary like Mother Earth is.