Earth Hour
Earth hour is an annual event that asks communities, businesses and governments to switch off the lights at 8.30pm on March 28th, for 1 hour. It does this to raise awareness of climate change and encourage people to take action to combat it.
Earth Hour 2009 reached more than one billion people in 2,000 cities across the globe. Towns, cities and municipalities turned off their non essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour between 8:30pm and 9:30pm.
Earth hour began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia in a collaborative affair between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and local newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2008 the campaign combined with San Francisco's "Lights Out" program to give the world a single Earth Hour to take action on climate change. By 2008 the event gained international acceptance and was a major success with over 400 cities participating. Major icons across the globe participated, including the Sydney Opera House, the Empire State Building, Sears Tower, CN Tower, the Colosseum, Wat Arun Temple and the Burj Dubai.
Earth Hour in 2009 was an even larger success. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon gave his support to the project by declaring that "Earth Hour is a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message, that they want action on climate change". In his speech he declared that "it promises to be the largest demonstration of public concern ever attempted. People will be telling their representative to seal a deal in Copenhagen... that protects people and the planet". He went on to urge citizens everywhere to join the campaign, saying that "together we can find a solution".
Businesses also got involved, in 2009, Google once again turned their homepage to a black background for 24 hours to promote Earth Hour and reduced electricity consumption for people conducting searches on their site. The website used the slogan "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour." to encourage their users to participate.
The next Earth Hour will be held on Sunday March 28, 2010 at 8:30pm local time.
2009 Enough CO2 Ltd.
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