Global landmarks from Sydney’s
Opera House to the Forbidden City, to the glittering
Las Vegas Strip, will be plunged into darkness Saturday as activists bid to
reinvigorate the climate change fight.
Hundreds of millions of homes, in scores of cities scattered
around 125 countries will also join the great Earth Hour switch-off, which
comes just months after disappointing UN climate talks in Copenhagen.
Iconic structures like the Empire State Buildingand Egypt’s
pyramids will heed conservation group WWF’s call to turn off the lights in the
name of environmentalism, creating a wave of darkness that will roll across the
world.
United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called the
campaign, now in its fourth year and expected to attract record participation,
“both a warning and a beacon of hope”.
“Climate change is a concern for each of us. Solutions are
within our grasp and are ready to be implemented by individuals, communities,
businesses and governments around the globe,” Ban said.
Sydney’s Opera House and Harbour Bridge will informally kick off
proceedings when they go dark at 8:30 pm (0930 GMT) along with millions of
Australian households.
The pattern will be replicated at the same local time across
the world, spreading across Asia to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americasand including 1,200 famous landmarks.
Beijing’s Forbidden City and
Bird’s Nest Stadium are among the participants along with dozens of cities in China,
the world’s biggest carbon polluter, where giant panda Mei Lan is an Earth Hour
ambassador.
Hong Kong’s renowned neon waterfront will temporarily dim as
will the Singapore Flyer observation wheel and office buildings in Jakarta and Seoul, before India’s massive urban centres of Delhi and Mumbai join the
power-down.
London’s Big Ben and Manchester United’s Old Trafford
football ground are set to take part amongst Europe’s best known spots
including Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral and the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
In America,
some 30 states are on board with Mount Rushmore, San
Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Chicago’s
110-storey Sears Tower all due to go dark.
But in Bangkok,
city authorities are under military orders to halt their Earth Hour campaign
for security reasons, as anti-government protesters plan another major rally.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney and now enjoys widespread support both
from the public and big business, including Google, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
This year, even users of ubiquitous Twitter and Facebook are
able to show their support with special applications that turn their displays
dark.
In December, two weeks of talks in Copenhagen failed to produce a binding
commitment to limit global warming or set out concrete plans for doing so. -(The Age, Australia/AFP)
