Yesterday evening over 200 cities, including Atlanta, particapted in Earth Hour. Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of 29th of March 2008 at 8 pm local time until 9 pm to promote electricity conservation and make a statement about climate change. The event is organized and promoted by World Wide Fund (WWF), the largest multinational conservation organization in the world.
Earth Hour has also received the backing of search engine giant, Google. From 12:00 AM on March 29, 2008 till the end of that day, the Google homepage in the United States, Canada, and the UK was turned to a black background. Their tagline is, "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour."
The first Earth Hour was held in Sydney, Australia between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm on 31st of March 2007. The 2007 Earth Hour is estimated to have cut Sydney's main electriciy consumption by between 2.1% and 10.2% for that hour, with as many as 2.2 million people taking part. Earth Hour 2008 marks the first anniversary of the event with many partner cities and individuals around the world participating. As of March 27th, over 11,900 businesses and over 200,000 individuals had registered on the Earth Hour website to indicate their participation.
The event on March 29 is one step in ongoing efforts to fight climate change. To encourage longer term benefits, all participants are being asked to replace older light bulbs with highly-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, and to pledge to take actions to reduce their energy consumption on a daily basis.
Climate change is perhaps the most significant issue facing our planet today. We are beginning to witness dramatic effects from climate change. Such as melting glaciers and frequent heat waves to increased intensity of hurricanes. In fact, the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1990. 2006 was the hottest year yet. It is with a strong sense of urgency and determination that the WWF organized Earth Hour around the world, and encouraged progressive cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco to participate. A supporting belief behind Earth Hour is that one person can make a difference, and cities coming together can change the world.
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