EARTH HOUR – March 23, 2013

Earth Hour is a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and held towards the end of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to Take Action on climate change.

The event, conceived by WWF and Leo Burnett, first took place in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights.

Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008.

Earth Hour 2013 is being held on March 23, 2013 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. during participants’ local time.

CANADA – The city also received the highest number of online votes in a People’s Choice ballot, and the city’s government passed an official “Earth Hour 2013” proclamation.

About 13-million Canadians turned off their lights for an hour last year in the symbolic event aimed at drawing awareness to climate change.

In a message to the world on the eve of the seventh Earth Hour, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has set the agenda for this year’s hour of inspiration. “We participate with an undimmed determination to take action on climate change,” he said.

“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. Together, let’s do our part and shed light on common sense answers for a cleaner, greener world.”

Turning out the lights for an hour might seem strange and a little pointless, but participating in Earth Hour makes a powerful statement that can last far longer than 60 minutes.

In Uganda, the world’s first Earth Hour Forest was allocated with 2,700 hectares of land, challenging Ugandans to fill it with 500,000 trees to fight against the 6,000 hectares of deforestation that occurs in the country every month. Standard Chartered Bank (250,000 trees), the Ugandan Minister of Water Environment (1,000 trees) and many individuals have taken on the challenge.

The Russian parliament passed a long-awaited law to protect the country’s seas from oil pollution in December, after the voices of 120,000 Russians were presented to the government during the “I Will If You Will” campaign for Earth Hour 2012.

The Former President of Botswana and Earth Hour Botswana coordinators Wena Environmental Education and News Trust, recently launched a project called ‘One Million Trees-Plant For Life’ as part of Earth Hour’s I Will If You Will campaign. The project will rehabilitate degraded lands through the planting of more than one million trees over four years in Botswana.

Read more: Earth Hour 2013 is Tonight! (And Yes, Turning Off the Lights Does Make a Difference)

EARTH HOUR VIGIL – 2013

Earth Hour 2013, 8:30 PM Saturday 23 March. Earth Hour has grown from a one-city initiative in 2007 to the world’s largest campaign for the planet, uniting hundreds of millions of people across 7001 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories.

The official 2013 video features the track “Without You” by David Guetta and Usher, providing an upbeat soundtrack to match the celebration of this year’s event across the world. Earth Hour’s mission is to unite people to protect the planet, so go beyond the hour and upload your I Will If You Will challenge to www.YouTube.com/EarthHour.

Dare the World to Save the Planet.

‘Without You‘ performed by David Guetta feat. UsherCourtesy of What A Music Ltd

Under licence from EMI Music Australia Pty Limited

“WITHOUT YOU”
(Crus/Guetta*/Love/Riesterer*/Tuinfort/U­sher) ©Rister Editions / What A Publishing Limited. Administered by J Albert & Son Pty Limited. Used with permission

Special thanks to:

ESA/NASA, WWF-UK, WWF International, WWF-Philippines/ Dani Bautista, WWF-China, WWF-Brasil, WWF-Indonesia/ Earth Hour Pontianak, Jerex Photographics, Miranda Kerr / KORA Organics, EWS-WWF UAE, WWF-Canada, WNF/ WWF Netherlands, Claudia Bahamon, Isabel Lucas, Sungshin Girl’s High School Korea, Greenpeace International, Facebook Live and all of the Earth Hour community who provided footage for this video.
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