The Empire State Building dimmed its lights and Sydney Harbour Bridge went dark as iconic landmarks across the world observed Earth Hour, the global climate change awareness campaign.
The usually glittering night-time majesty of the Empire State Building was set to "faint sparkle" in New York, while theatres on Broadway also toned down the neon.
Millions of people around the world on Saturday took part in the annual Earth Hour organised by conservation group WWF, with a string of well-known sights plunging into darkness globally.
"It's almost like the thing vanished," said Tony Jennings from Earth Hour after standing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the lights went off at 8.30pm.
In Australia, the initiative this year is focusing on farming, with fears that rising temperatures could ultimately damage the country's ability to produce food.
"In Australia, agriculture is the most vulnerable industry to the impacts of climate change," said national Earth Hour manager for Australia, Anna Rose.
The famous Las Vegas strip went dim, with the replica Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel turning its lights off, along with several hotels and casinos that normally illuminate the main drag in Sin City.
Other US west coast cities marked the occasion by switching off, with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco going dim and the normally bright gateway pylons at Los Angeles LAX airport turned off after being lit in green in honour of the occasion.
Further south in the Americas, landmarks in Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro were also lights out for the hour, shrouding parts of the cities in darkness.
Earlier in Paris, the Eiffel Tower went black for only five minutes - due to security reasons - while nearly 300 other monuments in the City of Light also switched off their lights.
This year's Earth Hour comes as the French capital prepares to host a crucial UN climate conference in December that will bring together the international community to discuss efforts to limit global warming.
In Berlin, activists at the unlit Brandenburg Gate placed candles in paper bags that were lined up to spell out "Save our Climate! Now!", while the Kremlin in Moscow also shed its evening diamonds.
The initiative began in Sydney in 2007 but quickly went global.
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.
AFP
source: newshub archive
