Over the last decade, WWF’s Earth Hour’s unique display of darkness has become a global phenomenon uniting hundreds of millions of individuals across the world.
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As night came on, the lights went out in cities from South Korea to the United States in what the World Wildlife Fund describes as a moment of solidarity for climate action.
The objective of the campaign is to highlight the world’s energy consumption and its impact on the environment by inviting people to switch off the power supply in their homes and offices – for one hour.
The Empire State building also chose to switch off lights and Russian Federation followed suit by closing the switch at the Kremlin.
After Asia, Earth Hour shifted to Europe where St Peter’s Basilica, Rome’s Trevi Fountain and the Parthenon temple in Athens were among a slew of iconic sites to go off-grid.
“We would like to encourage people to take action beyond this one hour, and to make energy efficiency and environmental conservation part of their daily lifestyles”, Eskom said. Since then, the WWF-organized event has expanded to thousands of cities and towns around the world and has been held every March. For the 2016 event, 19 March at 8:30pm – 9:30pm (local time) was the official ” lights out” period.
Did you switch off last night, if only for an hour?
The future health and well-being of our planet is at risk, particularly from the effects of climate change. “The fact that carbon emissions are directly linked to the global warming issue makes worldwide initiatives like Earth Hour a reminder for everyone to act responsibly”, he stated.
Taking place months after the historic climate summit in Paris, Earth Hour 2016 was celebrated across seven continents, aboard the International Space Station and served as a strong visual reminder of the globe’s determination to tackle our planet’s biggest environmental challenge yet.
The above picture shows the the skyline of the central business district before lights were turned back on during Earth Hour in Singapore March 19, 2016.
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As part of the “Donate Your Social Power” campaign, supporters around the world also donated their social feeds to WWF and Earth Hour to shine a light on climate action.
