GUADALAJARA - Think of it as the world’s first election on global warming: on Saturday, March 28, 8:30 p.m. local time around the globe, the World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations to “Vote Earth” by turning off all non-essential lights for one single hour – Earth Hour 2009.
Jalisco signs on to worldwide statement
Organizers hope to “collect” one billion votes of support for seeking solutions and taking action against global warming.
By press time, 2,712 cities, towns and municipalities in 84 countries and nearly 21,000 businesses had pledged commitment to Earth Hour 2009 – the lights will go out at high-profile monuments like the Acropolis in Athens, the New York Empire State Building and Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers. The Arch of Wembley Stadium in London will fittingly turn off its lights during a friendly international football match.
The “lights-out” movement was pioneered in 2007 as a powerful symbolic statement by 2.2 million homes and businesses in Sydney, Australia. In 2008, the message went global, with 50 million participants, including landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square.
Want to participate to help Earth Hour reach the one billion mark this year? Though Guadalajara-area governments have not joined the Earth Hour movement, thousands of Tapatios have pledged their support online – all you need to do to join in is turn off all non-essential lights for one hour starting on Saturday, March 28, 8:30 p.m. Encourage family, friends and local businesses to do the same – organizers hope that Earth Hour can be a social occasion, with participants gathering by candlelight to reflect on the challenges of global warming.
The results of Earth Hour will be presented at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009 as a show of popular support for world leaders working to find solutions to climate change. This meeting will determine official government environment policies, replacing the Kyoto Protocol.
To officially sign up or learn more about Earth Hour, visit www.earthhour.org.
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