Lights Go Off Around World to Observe Earth Hour

As night fell on Saturday, the world saw a wave of darkness spreading from time zone to time zone, with countries and regions switching off lights to observe the Earth Hour event.

During the one-hour-relay campaign, landmarks in hundreds of countries and regions went dark at 8:30 p.m.(0930 GMT) in a unified show of support for action towards a sustainable future.

In Los Angeles, the second biggest city in the United States, the 100-foot-tall pylons, which mark the entrance to the Los Angeles International Airport, glowed solid green an hour before the event and then went dark.

Lights also went off on the Queen Mary, a historic hotel featuring Art Deco staterooms and legendary sites, which turned off many of its exterior lights, including the smokestack.

In Kenya, people counted down in the square of the Kenyatta International Conference Center, the highest building in the capital Nairobi, to mark the commencement of Earth Hour 2011.

Olympic Champion Asbel Kiprop, Kenya's image ambassador for the event, graced the occasion and called for a sustainable growth model based on a green low-carbon economy.

"All sportspeople are training in the outside weather but climate change is polluting the environment and thus affecting their performance on the track," Kiprot told Xinhua.

South Korea also joined the world in marking Earth Hour on Saturday, with cities, homes, major landmarks and buildings switching off the lights for one hour starting 8:30 p.m..

Despite the cold wind, a group of people gathered on the top of Mt. Nam in central Seoul, watching candles being lit up. Among the participants, parents brought along their children to increase their awareness about environmental issues.

Other landmarks and major buildings in Seoul such as the Gyeongbokgung Palace, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the Central Government Complex and Gwanghwamun Square supported Earth Hour by extinguishing their lights for one hour.

In Singapore, some landmark buildings in the central business district Marina Bay and shopping district Orhcard Road turned off decorative lightings to support the event.

One of the buildings in Marina Bay had a countdown to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiative that has enjoyed ever wider participation since its launch in 2007 in Sydney.

In Hong Kong, China, more than 3,200 companies and buildings joined the global campaign, featuring record numbers of participants.

Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor, known for its night scenes, also went dim at 8:30 p.m. when neon signs and lights of buildings started to black out.

In Finland's 67 cities and towns, including Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Rovaniemi, over 350 enterprises and more than 150 communities and organizations joined the Earth Hour event on Saturday evening.

In the Finnish capital of Helsinki, some landmark buildings, such as Helsinki Cathedral Church turned off the lights between 20:30 and 21:30 local time as part of an effort to draw attention to the danger of climate change. Helsinki-based power plants also turned off their electric logos and ornamental lightings during Earth Hour.

Other international landmarks joining the one-hour blackout include Times Square and the Empire State Building in New York, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the tallest building in the world, Dubai's Burg Khalifa

The Earth Hour event, initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), will traverse the globe over 24 hours, from the first lights being dimmed across Fiji and New Zealand to lights being turned on again in Samoa.

According to Earth Hour spokesman Winston Su, some 133 countries and regions have signed up for the event this year, with 13 of them taking part for the first time.

Speaking at a global launch media conference earlier this month, Andy Ridley, co-founder and executive director of Earth Hour, said this year, the event is challenging people to go beyond the hour and think of other ways to make a difference after the lights go on.

"Earth Hour has grown amazingly from one city to over 4,000 in 128 countries (and regions). For us, it is the time for us to go to the next stage, and for us to go beyond the hour," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2011)