Thread: Lights out for 'Earth Hour'

6:30 PM Saturday Mar 26, 2011
Earth Hour aims to raise awareness about climate change. Photo / Thinkstock
From Sydney to Seoul, London to Lima, Dubai to Davis Station in frozen Antarctica, hundreds of millions of people are expected to switch off their lights to mark 'Earth Hour'.

The movement that began in Sydney in 2007 to raise awareness about climate change now brings together people from around the world to turn the lights off for 60 minutes to reduce energy consumption.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged people to celebrate the shared quest to "protect the planet and ensure human well-being".

"Let us use 60 minutes of darkness to help the world see the light," he said of the event, which kicks off in the Pacific, taking in New Zealand, Fiji and Australia, before rolling to Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Earth Hour, designed as a symbolic act to make people aware of everyday energy use, has evolved into a global movement which governments around the world have acknowledged as a positive step.

"The simple and powerful idea of switching off lights for an hour to drive action on climate change began in Sydney and has been embraced around the world," said Prime Minister Julia Gillard from Canberra's Parliament House, a landmark which will go dark from 8.30pm.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said sharing responsibility was the key to fighting climate change, describing Earth Hour as "a huge symbol of global solidarity, an inspiring display of international commitment".

Earth Hour co-founder and chief executive Andy Ridley said hundreds of millions of people took part in last year's event and he was hopeful of the same response, with 133 countries and territories signing on this year.

He added that social media sites such as Facebook had helped the movement's success, which has seen city officials switch off the lights in famous locations such as the Eiffel Tower and New York's Times Square.

"Social media is an incredibly powerful tool - it's not the only thing and other traditional tools are still important - but the difference now is that if you want to have a revolution, you don't have to take over the radio station," Ridley said from his Sydney office this week.

Earth Hour this year will focus on connecting people online so they can inspire each other to go beyond the hour and make commitments to help protect the environment, he said.

To do this, Earth Hour has created an online platform connected to the 14 top social media sites around the world, available in several languages, which people will be easily able to access from mobile phones.

Ridley said he never expected the Earth Hour movement to become so large.

"We didn't imagine right at the beginning... it would be on the scale that it is now. And the fact that it is so cross cultural, beyond borders and race and religion," he said.

- AFP