Natural Environment Blog

Many of the world’s most famous landmarks will be participating in Earth Hour this weekend. Here’s a list of the famous landmarks that are officially participating in Earth Hour 2008:

Australia

• Sydney:
  • Harbour Bridge
  • Opera House
  • Centrepoint Tower
  • Big Coke sign on William St (Kings Cross)
  • NSW Parliament
  • Town Hall
  • Kirribilli House
  • Luna Park
  • Buildings facing Circular Quay
  • Blues Point Tower
• Melbourne
  • The Arts Centre
  • Rialto Towers
  • Luna Park (St Kilda)
  • Melbourne Aquarium
  • The Jam Factory
  • Federation Square
  • Melbourne Town Hall
  • Melbourne Zoo
• Adelaide
  • Adelaide Town Hall
  • Adelaide Central Markets
  • Victoria Square Fountain
  • The Advertiser building
  • Hilton Adelaide.
• Brisbane
  • Casino
  • Story Bridge
  • City Hall
  • Victoria Bridge
  • William Jolly Bridge
  • Brisbane Square
  • A number of State Government parliamentary buildings
• Perth
  • The WACA (WA Cricket Ground)

United States

• Atlanta
  • Coca Cola Headquarters
  • Georgia Aquarium (world’s largest aquarium)
• Chicago
  • Sears Tower
  • John Hancock Building
  • Soldier Field (home of Chicago Bears football)
  • Boeing Headquarters Building
  • Merchandise Mart
  • Drake Hotel
  • Chicago City Hall
  • C N A Building
  • Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building
  • Chicago Theater Marquees in downtown
  • Hard Rock Cafe
  • Marquee at Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs).
• San Francisco
  • San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge
  • San Francisco Bay Bridge
  • San Francisco Town Hall
  • Head offices of USA IT partner Hewlett-Packard Company (Palo Alto, CA).
• Phoenix
  • City government buildings

Canada

• Toronto
  • All City of Toronto Buildings
  • CN Tower
  • Ontario Science centre
  • Ontario Place
  • Honest Ed’s
  • Toronto Eaton Centre

Ireland

• Dublin
  • Office of Public Works
  • Non-essential lights of Government buildings
  • Customs House
  • Dublin City buildings

Israel

• Tel Aviv
  • Azrieali Tower
  • City Hall building and all hotels

In a recent post, I listed 24 cities as being official participants of this year’s Earth Hour. As it’s turning out, Earth Hour is going to be much, much bigger than that!

Around the globe, cities that aren’t on the official list are announcing that they will be participating in Earth Hour. Here are some (in no particular order):

• Minneapolis
• Welland
• Scott Base (in the Antarctic!)
• Pecs
• Brampton
• Dorval

And you may have noticed that the Welland Tribune states that more than 100 Canadian cities will participate in Earth Hour this year.

Earth Hour is being held between 8pm and 9pm on Saturday, March 29.

Update 29 March 2008: After I posted this list, the final list came to 26.

There are now 24 cities around the world officially participating in Earth Hour next weekend (29 March at 8pm).

The cities participating in Earth Hour are:

Australia

• Sydney
• Perth
• Melbourne
• Canberra
• Brisbane
• Adelaide

United States

• Atlanta
• Chicago
• San Francisco
• Phoenix

Thailand

• Bangkok

Canada

• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Toronto
• Vancouver

Ireland

• Dublin

Denmark

• Aarhus
• Aalborg
• Copenhagen
• Odense

Philippines

• Manila

Fiji

• Suva

Israel

• Tel Aviv

New Zealand

• Christchurch

Hey, if your city isn’t on the official list it doesn’t mean you can’t participate! According to the Earth Hour website:

While there are 24 official cities taking part in Earth Hour, there are many more cities expected to turn off the lights all over the world, and WWF-Australia estimates that more than 30 million people will take part. To date, 58,615 people have signed up to Earth Hour but that number is set to soar.

In any case, regardless of whether your city is participating, you can still participate. All you need to do is switch your lights off between 8pm and 9pm on Saturday, March 29. Yes, it’s that easy!

The team members at Scott Base in the Antarctic will be participating in Earth Hour next weekend.

They will switch off as many lights as they can, although they will need to keep some safety lighting on. They will be switching off all computers, radios, and TVs. They won’t be able to switch off their heating, as temperatures are around minus 30 degrees these days in Scott Base.

Scott Base winter mechanic Grant Hill says:

We are keen in whatever way to do whatever we can as far as energy conservation goes. The base runs very energy efficiently anyway, but we thought it would be a good thing to get on board with.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

So you’re going to participate in Earth Hour? Excellent! So, what are you going to do during Earth Hour?

What I did during last year’s Earth Hour

During the very first Earth Hour last year, I turned off all lights and the TV. I also decided to take the time to turn unnecessary appliances off. I actually spent most of Earth Hour looking around at my neighbors apartments to see how many were participating!

My apartment had a view straight into the city, so I could see that the city was much darker than usual. My apartment also had a (very close) view to Telstra Stadium - the stadium from the 2000 Olympic Games. Unfortunately, there was a game on that night (I guess the organizers decided against staging the game in complete darkness!).

What the Canadians are going to do

According to a survey by Angus Reid Strategies, almost 70% of Canadians plan to take part in Earth Hour. Here’s what survey participants have said they will do during Earth Hour:

• 25% will take the time to check out the stars
• 21% will sit in the dark
• 12% will take the opportunity to have quality time with their partner
• 7% will be sleeping (hopefully with the lights off)
• 5% will be at work
• 4% will attend an Earth Hour event
• 3% will party
• 23% will do, um… “other”

The survey was an online poll, covering all of Canada, and was answered by 1,023 adults. The poll is considered accurate within plus or minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

So, what will you be doing during this year’s Earth Hour?

Last year, I took part in an extremely successful event to reduce climate change and I’ll be doing the same again this year. The event was called “Earth Hour.

At 8pm on March 29, more than 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses did their bit to reduce global warming - and they were all from the one city! What’s more, given this city (Sydney, Australia) only has a population of around 4 million, this means half of the city did their bit to reduce global warming.

In one hour, the people of Sydney reduced the city’s energy consumption by 10.2%. That’s the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a whole year!

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a climate change initiative which calls on individuals and businesses around the world, to turn off their lights for one hour. This year it is happening at 8pm March 29, 2008.

Sydney was the first (and so far only) city in the world to hold Earth Hour. This year, Earth Hour is being held in up to 20 cities across 6 continents. Earth Hour will be held in cities including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv.

I really think Earth Hour is going to become a global success. This is mainly because the idea behind Earth Hour is a simple one and it is extremely easy to participate in. To participate in Earth Hour, all you have to do is turn off your lights for 1 hour. That’s all. Of course, once your lights are off, feel free to keep ‘em off!

Earth Hour is run by WWF. WWF is the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organisation, with close to five million supporters and a global network active more than 100 countries.

You can learn more about Earth Hour from the official Earth Hour website.