Earth Hour Aims for Hope in Darkened World

“And the fact that it is so cross-cultural, beyond borders and race and religion,” he added, saying the event would never have grown so successfully without social networking sites such as Facebook.

This year organisers are focussing on connecting people online so they can inspire each other to go beyond the hour and make commitments to help the environment in their daily lives.

To do this they have created an online platform connected to the 14 top social media sites around the world, including Facebook and Twitter, which people will be easily able to access from mobile phones. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard this week backed Earth Hour.

“Earth Hour has become a special symbol of the determination of so many people to make a difference,” said Gillard, who is facing stiff opposition to her plan to introduce a tax on carbon pollution in Australia.

Ridley said that despite the growth of the event, which organisers said was the largest voluntary action ever witnessed in 2010, the ideals of the global movement had not changed.

“When we first started this we were trying to effectively take the temperature, we were trying to prove or see whether, contrary to some commentators, whether or nor people cared (about climate change),” he said.

“I think there is a massive consensus for action, not just on climate change.

“The idea of this is not to engage in the ’why we can’t do anything’ debate but absolutely talk about what can be done.” The first lights going off Saturday will be in Fiji and New Zealand’s Chatham Islands, before cities and landmarks around the world follow suit.

Other iconic structures due to go dark include the Sydney Opera House, Indonesia’s National Monument, London’s Eye and Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue.