Switch off your lights for Earth Hour tomorrow night
March 28 2008:
A year ago, in Sydney, WWF and other activists invited people to switch off their lights and appliances for one hour. More than two thousand businesses and 2.2 million people did exactly that – to demonstrate their support for global action against climate change. Their effort reduced the city's energy consumption by more than 10.2% during that hour – equivalent, astonishingly, to taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year.
They called it Earth Hour, and decided to make it global. The second earth hour is tomorrow night, March 29, and the local time for switching off is between 8pm and 9pm. ARC will be switching off our faxes and our answerphones – and at our homes we will be dining by candlelight.
It’s a small gesture, but it’s a good way of remembering just what a privilege electricity is, and how we could all take steps –every day - to stop wasting it.
Prominent UK buildings – from Brighton Pier to Highgrove House to the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth – have joined iconic global landmarks such as the San Francisco Bay Bridge and The Sears Tower in Chicago by promising to switch off for Earth Hour tomorrow. Why don't you join in.
And if you are a member or leader of a religious group, then if you will be holding a meeting or a service over the weekend in your church, temple, mosque, monastery or other religious building, why don't you tell people about Earth Hour - and perhaps enjoy only candle light during the service itself?
