JAPAN
Source: Mashable.com
Around the World Tonight, Lights will go out for Earth Hour
For one hour on Saturday starting at 8:30 p.m, local time, cities around the world will send a collective message about conservation and climate change.
Called Earth Hour, the event encourages participants to turn off all non-essential lights for 60 minutes. This year, 7,000 cities in 162 countries are participating.
Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia and has gone from strength to strength each year. 2015 is set to be the biggest year yet, with the World Wildlife Fund reporting that 7,000 cities, 1,200 landmarks and 172 countries and territories will go dark tonight, between 8.30 and 9.30 p.m. local time.
According to Sudhanshu Sarronwala, chair of Earth Hour global: “Climate change is not just the issue of the hour, it’s the issue of our generation. The lights may go out for one hour, but the actions of millions throughout the year will inspire the solutions required to change climate change.”
There’s a a lot happening tonight, with some of the world’s most famous landmarks pledging their support to the cause by going dark for Earth Hour, including the UN building and Times Square in New York, the Houses of Parliament in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Scotland’s Forth Road Bridge, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Rio de Janeiro’s Rio Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). Thirty UNESCO World Heritage sites will also go dark, including the Acropolis in Athens, Edinburgh Castle, and the Germany’s Cologne Cathedral. In Las Vegas, casinos and hotels on the Strip will turn off their exterior lights and marquees, leaving one of the most famous streets in the world in complete darkness.
Canadians will be joining people around the world tonight in turning off their lights to mark Earth Hour. B.C. Hydro, for example, noted that for Earth Hour last year British Columbians reduced the provincial electricity load by one per cent — the equivalent of turning off about 1.4 million lights.
Will you participate in earth hour?