Mark your calendars for Earth Hour 2012!

Now in it’s sixth year, The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s Earth Hour is once again inspiring people all over the world to switch off their lights for one hour on March 31st, at 8:30pm local time as part of a global vote for the environment. On this date, hundreds of millions of people around the globe will turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as part of a campaign whose mission is to awareness about the environmental challenges we all face, provoke discussion about these challenges, and get individuals and governments to commit to long-term solutions that will benefit the planet.

In 2007, Sydney, Australia was the first city to switch off its lights. In 2008, Earth Hour went global and 50 million people around the world took part. In 2011, 1.8 billion people from over 5,000 cities and towns in 135 countries and territories across every continent participated!

If you’d like to participate, you can sign up as an individual or organize an event. For more information and resources
visit World Wildlife’s website.

Happy Earth Hour!

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Earth Hour 2010

Now in it’s third year, The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s Earth Hour is once again inspiring people all over the world to switch off their lights for one hour on March 27, at 8:30pm local time, as part of a global vote for the environment.

Last year, nearly one billion people  in 4100 cities in 87 countries turned off their lights. In the U.S. alone, 80 million people in 318 cities participated. Several cities, including Washington, DC, and landmarks from around the world also participated, including the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, Broadway Theatre Marquees and the Las Vegas Strip (imagine how much electricity was saved from these last two locations alone).

And Commonwealth Edison in norther Illinois reported that electrical usage dropped by 1 percent during Earth Hour 2009. This saved about 100 megawatt hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the removal of around 154,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

For specific actions you can take as an individual, organization or government, see the Earth Hour toolkit page. Today I signed the pledge to participate, and you can too by visiting the Earth Hour website.

If you are wondering what to do during that hour of darkness, here is a family-friendly list of ideas for activities from Mother Nature Network.

Lights off!

Earth Hour: Vote With Your Light Switch

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Earth Hour has set the goal of inspiring people all over the world to switch off their lights for one hour on March 28, at 8:30pm local time, as part of a global vote. Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming.

WWF is urging the world to Vote Earth and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. In December 2009 world leaders meet in Copenhagen to agree on a post-Kyoto policy for tackling climate change and 1 billion people voting with their light switch during Earth Hour will create a powerful mandate for our leaders to take strong and decisive action on climate change.

Cities as well as individuals will be participating. Washington, DC has signed on to be an official flagship city for Earth Hour 2009. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. on March 28^th, the District will turn off non-essential lighting on many buildings and landmarks, including facilities owned by the local government.

Lights off!