World comes together for Earth Hour 2017
The lights were switched off around the world at 8:30 pm (local time) on Saturday evening to mark the Earth Hour 2017, 10th edition of the initiative, to draw attention to climate change.
The initiative began in Australia in 2007 as a grass roots gesture by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia against man-made carbon dioxide emissions linked to a warming planet.
In 2017, it will involve the switching off of electric lights for an hour in 7,000 cities across 172 countries, at 8:30 pm local time, with the aim of highlighting the need to act on climate change, and saving a few megawatts of power in the process.
While the organisers of Earth Hour said they do not audit results of the energy saving initiative, the group has commissioned research indicating up to one in four Australians gets involved.
WWF says Earth Hour can take credit for various environmental initiatives, like the 2013 declaration of a 3.4 million hectare marine park in the waters off Argentina, the planting of a forest in Uganda and a ban on soft plastics in the Galapagos Island.
