My hometown Bronx Zoo has decided to nix its Christmas lighting this December, Treehugger reports. Can the New York Botanical Garden cancellation of its Yuletide electric-train display be far behind?

If you’re one of the legions of animal lovers who’ve spent a holiday evening admiring the lights at the Bronx Zoo but deploring the carbon emissions they inevitably create there’s good news for you. The Wildlife Conservation Society has decided to move the annual event to daylight hours to create an extravaganza that won’t leave a giant footprint behind when you’re gone. . . .Of course, there will be some of us who will rue the absence of holiday lights at the zoo, but the estimated electricity usage during the annual Holiday Lights has been approximately 650-750 kilowatts of electricity per hour. And with the event running for five hours each night during the holiday season, it has meant about 3,500 kilowatts per night, which equals about two metric tons of CO2 emissions per night, with last years 33 night event giving off the equivalent of one three-person household in the U.S.

Gwen from Massachusetts dugg the idea: “Finally, someone making some sacrifices. Kids won’t have the lights, but a difference will be made. These are the small changes we need.” Might I suggest another small change? Turn off your computer. Turn off Treehugger’s server, while we’re at it.

I suspect there’s one way the lights could be restored, in a way that would satisfy the tender consciences at the Wildlife Conservation Society (from a Christmas card that is currently on sale, believe it or not):