Earth Hour: When the World Turned its Lights Off for One Hour

To send a message to the world about the importance of saving the planet, people all over the world turned off their lights on Saturday at “Earth Hour,” from 8:30 to 9:30 PM local time.

The “Earth Hour” began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 through work between the World Wildlife Foundation and other partners with the mission of bringing international attention to the threat of climate change on our planet.

Now, over 187 countries across the world participate in the symbolic event, turning off their lights for one hour each year.

Millions of people across the world turned off their lights on Saturday, in one of the largest collective acts of environmental activism in the world.

Earth Hour raises awareness of pollution, climate change

As the catastrophic threat of climate change still looms ahead, Earth hour’s original mission is still strikingly relevant, but organizers have now used it to call for the preservation of natural resources and essential ecosystems across the world as well.

Increasingly, waterways across the world have become polluted and once-lush rain forests have suffered deforestation, posing a critical threat not just to millions of species of wildlife, but also to us.

In support of Earth Hour’s mission, iconic monuments, landmarks, and buildings around the world were shrouded in darkness on Saturday, including many in Greece, such as the Acropolis, the White Tower in Thessaloniki, and the Rio Bridge in Patra.