From Green Right Now Reports
Plans are taking shape for Earth Hour 2010, the annual event in which landmarks around the world switch off their lights as a symbol of their commitment to resolving the issue of global warming.
This year’s event will be held at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27. Among the participating global icons for 2010 are CN Tower in Toronto, Table Mountain in Cape Town, the Grand Palace in Bangkok and the world’s second tallest building, Tapei 101. U.S. landmarks that will go dark include the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Mount Rushmore and the lights of Las Vegas.
The actions shown by cities of the world and their inhabitants are crucial to leading a low-carbon resolution to climate change, says Earth Hour Co-Founder and Executive Director, Andy Ridley. He noted that the C40, a climate leadership group of many of the world’s largest cities, says that cities are responsible for up to 75 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
“So their role in addressing what is unequivocally the greatest threat to the planet today is absolutely vital,” Ridley said in a statement. “By turning the lights off their landmarks for Earth Hour, cities are reflecting the aspirations of their citizens as a community that has resolved to take action on global warming.”
Earth Hour began as a one-city initiative in Sydney in 2007, when 2 million people switched off their lights. By 2009 it had grown into a global event that included the Great Pyramids, Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum, Christ the Redeemer statue, Buckingham Palace, Beijing’s Olympic Stadium and many more world-famous landmarks as 4,159 cities, towns and municipalities in 88 countries participated.