Earth Hour 2012: Before and After

Chillon Castle Before Earth Hour
Photograph by Jean-Christophe Bott, Keystone/AP
Switzerland's Chillon Castle glows pastel in a picture taken March 31, 2012, just before much of the world went dark for Earth Hour.
This year's Earth Hour will take place on March 23 at 8:30 p.m. local time, when people in more than 7,000 cities and 152 countries and territories will turn off their lights as a show of solidarity against global warming, according to the Earth Hour website.
Palestine, Tunisia, Galapagos, Suriname, French Guyana, St. Helena, and Rwanda are among those joining the movement for the first time in 2013.
Billed as the largest symbolic mass participation event in the world, Earth Hour began more humbly in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 with about two million participants. The voluntary one-hour "fade-out" has since grown into an international event involving hundreds of millions of people. (See before-and-after Earth Hour pictures from past years.)
Earth Hour's energy-saving impact is limited: It does very little to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, according to its partner WWF.
Andy Ridley, CEO and co-founder of Earth Hour, said in a statement that the event was created "to unite people and show our desire to protect the planet," as well as "to encourage and empower people to take action beyond the hour itself."
Published March 22, 2013
Chillon Castle During Earth Hour
Photograph by Jean-Christophe Bott, Keystone/AP
Chillon Castle sits dark during Earth Hour, which always occurs in late March.
Earth Hour is timed to occur during the spring and autumn equinoxes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively.
That means that sunsets will occur at roughly the same time around the globe—"thereby ensuring the greatest visual impact for a global 'lights out' event," according to the Earth Hour website. (See Earth Hour pictures from 2011.)
Published March 22, 2013
Tianjin Eye Ferris Wheel Before Earth Hour
Photograph by Wang Qingyan, Imaginechina/AP
The Tianjin Eye Ferris Wheel glimmers before Earth Hour in Tianjin, China.
A total of 124 Chinese cities joined urban centers around the world in turning off the lights of their landmark buildings in 2012.
Published March 22, 2013
Tianjin Eye Ferris Wheel During Earth Hour
Photograph by Wang Qingyan, Imaginechina/AP
The Tianjin Eye Ferris wheel is seen after the lights were turned off to mark Earth Hour in Tianjin, China.
That year, Earth Hour launched I Will If You Will, a platform to incentivize and inspire individuals to share their commitment to the planet with others, according to the Earth Hour website.
Published March 22, 2013
Great Wall of China Before Earth Hour
Photograph by Vincent Thian, AP
The Great Wall of China is lit up shortly before the lights go off to mark Earth Hour.
In a WWF survey conducted after Earth Hour 2009, 80 million U.S. citizens said they had participated, WWF spokesperson Leslie Aun said in 2010. (Read more about Earth Hour 2010.)
"Cities and businesses are the ones you're always hearing about, because they have the skyscrapers and the big marquees. But Earth Hour has always been an event about families and individuals as well," Aun said.
Published March 22, 2013
Great Wall of China During Earth Hour
Photograph by Vincent Thian, AP
The Great Wall of China darkens during Earth Hour. Those participating in Earth Hour should only turn off the non-essential lights for one hour—not lights that affect public safety, according to organizers.
Published March 22, 2013
Prambanan Temple Before Earth Hour
Photograph by Gembong Nusantara, AP
Lights illuminate the 9th-century Hindu temple of Prambanan in Java, Indonesia.
In 2012, Earth Hour created the Earth Hour City Challenge, which rewards pioneering cities that are "leading the way towards a fully sustainable future," according to the website. More than 70 percent of the of the world's carbon dioxide emissions—a major greenhouse gas—is generated by cities.
Published March 22, 2013
Prambanan Temple During Earth Hour
Photograph by Gembong Nusantara, AP
The Hindu temple of Prambanan sits dark during Earth Hour.
On the eve of the 2013 Earth Hour, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement, "We participate with an undimmed determination to take action on climate change. Everyone has a role to play.
"Governments need to provide the political will, businesses can contribute solutions, and civil society, especially young people, can mobilize global action."
Published March 22, 2013
See Pictures of Earth Hour 2011
Photograph by Felipe Dana, AP
Published March 22, 2013

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7 comments

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Jay Clark

Are there any 'shots from space' that show the comparisons year by year. I would love to see if there were noticeable differences & if more 'cared' to participate.

Kyle E Murray

Triple E Agent is on board for a good solid Earth 8 Hours. Planning ahead for some other dates too: http://tripleeagent.blogspot.com/2013/03/earth-hour-2013.html

LEA BROWNING

my LIGHTS WIll be off.....I want my kids to have grandchildren and so on.....have a better earth enviroment.

Michael Roussel

1 Like

I'll be sure to turn on all my lights and electric appliances at precisely 8:30PM tonight. Anthropomorphic Global Climate Change is debatable at best, and an elitist fraud akin to clairvoyance perpetrated on an ignorant and indifferent public at worst.

To Post

@Michael Rousselis another "conservative" wasting energy and denying science. When I was a conservative it meant that you were thrifty, conserved resources, and despised all waste. Now that they love waste and despise science, I had to become a liberal. Deniers deserve all the ridicule they get. Science is real!

Gary Scott

2 Like

@Michael Roussel Big words don't make your statements more intelligent...especially when they contradict the findings of the nearly every single respectable climatologist of the 20th and 21st century. Troll somewhere else, perhaps?