To highlight the effects of climate change, the second-ever Earth Hour is encouraging everyone around the globe to switch their lights off for one hour tomorrow, 28 March, from 8:30 to 9:30pm, and to get talking about climate change by youtubing, tweeting and blogging their efforts.
Earth Hour, an initiative by the World Wildlife Trust, will see lights switched out everywhere, from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the great pyramids in Egypt.
People are encouraged to take photos on the night and upload them to Flickr with the Earth Hour tag, as well as the city and country they are in, and to video their results and post them on YouTube.
If you don’t have time to snap some pics, there is always Twitter: users can tweet out and remind others to switch off and use the hashtags #earthhour or #voteearth, plus your #location, for tagging purposes.
Supporters can also join the Facebook or MySpace groups for Earth Hour.
It is hoped that if global efforts are tagged in this manner. the sheer scale of this initiative will be recognised and the issue of climate change will be highlighted.
Viral video is also helping, with 12seconds.tv asking people to post videos of themselves in a 12-second practice run of their actions for tomorrow night, be it gathering around the glow of their mobile phones or relaxing by candlelight.
Some global companies, including Coca-Cola and McDonalds, have vowed to turn out or at least dim their lights tomorrow night.
With people including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Archbishop Desmond Tutu giving Earth Hour their full backing, and the Greek Government opting to switch out the lights at the Acropolis, as well as the Empire State Building in New York taking part, complete darkness will never have spread such light.
By Marie Boran
