Perilous Times
The New Religion: Lights go out worldwide for Worship The Earth Hour
* From: AAP
* March 27, 2010 11:17PM
SYDNEY Opera House fell into darkness tonight as millions of lights
were switched off across Australia, kicking off a global energy-saving
marathon.
Homes and businesses killed their lights at 8.30pm (AEDT) for Earth
Hour in an effort to lower the planet's carbon footprint and raise
awareness of the environment.
In Sydney, harbour ferry horns blared to signal the rolling event,
which began in New Zealand and will wrap up 25 hours later in Apia,
Samoa, at 6.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday.
Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley said: "I'm so amazed that
people take part on the scale that they do and enjoy it, because that's
what it's about.
"What we're still looking for in this coming year is a global deal that
encourages all countries to lower their emissions and China is going to
have to be a big part of that but so is every other major economy."
In December, two weeks of UN talks in Copenhagen failed to produce a
binding commitment to limit global warming or set out concrete plans
for doing so, in a setback for the environmental movement.
But commitment to change still exists at a grassroot level.
Earth Hour is supported by 4000 cities in a record 125 countries. It
also includes 1200 landmarks, among them the Pyramids, the Tower of
Pisa and the Eiffel Tower.
For the first time, the Forbidden city in Beijing is also be taking
part, along with 20 cities across China, despite the country's
resistance at Copenhagen.
Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million people switched off
the lights in their homes, offices and businesses for 60 minutes to
make a point about electricity consumption and carbon pollution.
The campaign went global the following year, and it has now harnessed
support from a raft of multinational companies including Google,
Coca-Cola, Hilton, McDonalds, Canon, HSBC and IKEA.