2012 Earth Hour

The light goes out for 2012 Earth Hour

AP reports on 2012 Earth Hour

Lights out around the globe

Landmarks across the world go dark as part of Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight climate change.

Hundreds of landmarks from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the Great Wall of China went dark on Saturday night as part of a global effort to highlight climate change.
Earth Hour, held on the last Saturday of March every year, began as a Sydney-only event in 2007. The city’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House were dimmed again this year.
Australia is among the first countries to flick off the light switches each year.

The Empire State Building turns off its lights in this combined image showing before (left) and during (right) Earth Hour in New York. Photo: AFP

In New Zealand, Sky Tower in Auckland and the parliament buildings in Wellington switched off two hours earlier.
Tokyo Tower was also dimmed and in Hong Kong buildings along Victoria Harbour also went dark.
The WWF, the global environmental group which organises the event, says the number of countries and territories participating has grown to 147 from 135 last year.

Lights dim on world landmarks for Earth Hour 2012

This combo of pictures shows the Leaning Tower of Pisa with the lights on (left) and with the lights off (right) during Earth Hour on March 31, 2012, in Pisa. Photo: AFP
“Global warming is a big issue,” said Rudy Ko of Taiwanese environmental group Society of Wilderness. “Everybody can help reduce the problem by turning the lights off.”

Ko said children should invite parents “to turn the lights off, go out, go to the parks to do some exercise and enjoy some family time instead of watching TV or playing video games”.
In Europe, 5000 candles were lit in the form of a globe in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate before city officials switched off the monument’s lighting.
More than 230 monuments and major gathering points in Paris dimmed lights for an hour – including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe and fountains and bridges over the Seine.
However, the Eiffel Tower went dark for only five minutes “for security reasons”.
Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral were among the London landmarks to go dark. The Savoy Hotel planned to light its lobby, bars and restaurants with candles.
“Let us stand together to make of our world a sustainable source for our future as humanity on this planet,” the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory said in a tweet.
Across the Nordic nations, government buildings and municipalities joined in, including Stockholm’s royal castle and the Swedish capital’s globe-shaped sports arena.
In Sweden’s second-largest city, Goteborg, the main boulevard was bathed in an hour’s darkness.
People launched paper lanterns into the air in St Petersburg, Russia.
Washington’s National Cathedral and New York’s Empire State Building also took part.
Libya, Algeria, Bhutan and French Guinea were among the nations participating in Earth Hour for the first time.

 

Keraton Jogja Welcomes Candle Lights: Earth Hour Report

Three hours before the lights out, pre-events were held by inviting people to the spot. The main front stage of the palace, which usually called “pagelaran” were crowded since the sunset. Traditional dances were perfectly entertaining on the stage as the guests comes to their seats. People came and joined the one-hour switching off light that also fully supported by the government of Special Region of Yogyakarta. The 2012 Earth Hour 60+ moment, were succesfully delivered on March 31st at 20.30 to 21.30 P.M.  for the people of Jogjakarta. Spreading the simpathy and the supports to save energy with the same movements around the globe.
Candle lights are the only lights at the Keraton for the amazing one hour. Volunteers, governments, even people outside the fence were holding their candles while enjoying the dark moment of appreciate. Even kids joined in by sitting on the grass in front of the Keraton and wondered how to keep the candle lights on.
Through welcome speech, the governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X adressed that government is fully support all the movements initiated by community that spread the spirit to save energy. “This is part of being a human being. We discover energy, and we take the duty to keep it safe,” says Sultan who stood up with his epic-look batik shirt. Came along with him, also addressed the city mayor, and some officials. The plaza is fully crowded about one hour before Sultan delivered the switch-off ceremonials.
Not only at Keraton, Earth Hour 60+ moment in Jogjakarta was also shown by those who has the same spirit. The BNI bank building on Kilometer Nol ave. and the Presidential Building “Gedung Agung” were officially “switched-off” nearly at the same minutes. In the other side of the city, Ambarrukmo Plaza and the Tugu Jogja has taken special shot of this annual lights out moment. It was incredible to notice that some people didn’t even realize that the city involved in a worldwide event.
About a hundreds of volunteers came from schools and collede students joined the show. In social media, the movement even found its warriors thirty days before the main event. The messages were delivered to almost all of the major city in Indonesia, using Twitter and Facebook. The documentations are also incredible. People posted their Earth Hour moment pictures just in minutes.
Earth Hour 60+ were held firstly in 2007 when WWF in Australia realize that the world needs some real act to save energy. The idea of switching the ligths off for one hour were shown first time in Opera House, Sydney, and some major citys in a number of countries. Today, the world realize bigger thing that we need more people to know this, and to do the same action, things more than just switching the lights off for one hour. Indonesia joined the campaign in 2009 and delivered good results in almost all major cities. This is hope for humanity.