Cities around the world go dark for ‘Earth Hour’ climate campaign

Chesnot/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — For one hour on Saturday, cities across the globe went dark.

At 8:30 p.m. local time, people switched off their lights for “Earth Hour,” an annual event managed by the World Wide Fund for Nature to highlight climate change.

The Sydney Opera House, Rome’s ancient Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Empire State Building were among the historic sites submerged in darkness for the hour switch-off.

“Starting as a symbolic lights out event in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour is now the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring millions of people to take action for our planet and nature,” WWF said in a statement on its Earth Hour website.

Besides turning off the lights, activists were encouraged by WWF to change their lifestyles in a small way, such as carrying a reusable coffee cup, switching to a green energy supplier, or washing clothes at a cooler temperature.

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