178 countries to celebrate Earth Hour 2016
The Earth is set to see an hour of darkness as hundreds of millions of people from 178 countries and territories around the world get ready to celebrate Earth Hour 2016. 2016 will mark the 10th anniversary of the world's biggest environmental event - Earth Hour. Participants will put out all non-essential lights for an hour starting from 8:30 PM local time.
The origins of Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a worldwide event aimed at raising awareness about climate change and highlighting environmental issues facing the planet. It was started off as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, and has gained massive support and coverage since then, spreading to over 7000 cities and towns worldwide. The symbolic annual event is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Earth Hour supported by major corporations
Earth Hour is supported by some of the biggest corporations on the planet including Google, Yahoo!, TIME, the Discovery Channel, CNN, Hyatt, National Geographic, IKEA, HSBC, LG, MTV and many more.
Earth Hour over the years
Since its inception in 2007, Earth Hour grew in stature becoming the world's largest grassroots environmental movement by 2009. 2008 saw 35 participating countries which subsequently grew to 88 in 2009, 126 in 2010, 135 in 2011, 152 in 2012, 154 in 2013, 162 in 2014 and 172 in 2015. Earth Hour 2015 saw over 378 million tweets, and over 82 million video views.
Major landmarks switch off their lights
Almost all major monuments across the world observe Earth Hour - from the Sydney Opera House to the Eiffel Tower to the Empire State Building and so on. In 2015, over 10,400 monuments switched off their lights.
