Lights go off for Earth Hour

New Delhi : The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge went dark for an hour yesterday, kicking off a global campaign raising awareness about the impact of climate change.

Earth Hour, which started in Australia in 2007, is set to be observed by millions of supporters in 187 countries, who will turn off their lights at 8.30 p.m. local time in what organisers describe as the world’s “largest grassroots movement for climate change”. “It aims to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment and wildlife,” said Earth Hour organiser WWF Australia chief Dermot O’Gorman.

Other global landmarks that are part of the campaign include Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Pyramids of Egypt and New York’s Empire State
Building.

With global temperatures the highest on record,  O’Gorman said this year’s theme was the impact of climate change on biodiversity and plant and animal species.

“More than half of plant and animal species face local extinction in some of the world’s most naturally rich areas in biodiversity by the turn of this century if we continue along the current path that we are trending in terms of global warming,” he said.