Hundreds of landmarks from Paris' Eiffel Tower to Sydney's Harbour Bridge to the Seattle Space Needle will dim their lights on Saturday, as people around the world mark Earth Hour with candlelight and barbecues.
The 60-minute annual campaign organised by conservation group WWF encourages citizens, communities, businesses and organisations to switch the lights off for an hour from 8:30pm to highlight the plight of planet Earth.
Now in its ninth year, Earth Hour's goal is not to achieve measurable electricity savings, but to raise awareness of the need for sustainable energy use, and this year also to demand action to halt planet-harming climate change.
"Over 170 countries and territories have already confirmed their participation; more than 1200 landmarks and close to 40 UNESCO world heritage sites," Earth Hour head Sudhanshu Sarronwala told AFP.
These range from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the Acropolis in Athens, Edinburgh Castle, Big Ben, Ecuador's Quito historical centre and New York's Times Square.
Earth Hour 2015 takes place just months before UN member states are meant to sign an ambitious pact in Paris in December to limit galloping global warming, and just days before a loose end-March deadline for "those parties ready to do so" to submit their carbon-curbing pledges.
From a small, symbolic event held in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to a global campaigning event with a festive twist.
This year will include a glow-in-the-dark Zumba party in the Philippines, a co-ordinated candlelit dinner in Finland billed as the world's largest, restaurant dinners by candlelight in London, and a power-generating dance floor to light up the Eiffel Tower after its hour-long sleep, said WWF.
The organisers published a list of ideas for individual participants, which included barbecuing instead of stove cooking, a candle-lit street party or a picnic under the stars.
An estimated nine million people in 162 countries took part in Earth Hour last year, according to the WWF, of whom 85 percent "said that they felt inspired to do more to protect the planet, such as making small changes to live more sustainably and reduce their impact on the environment."
AFP
source: newshub archive
