Earth Hour 2009: Lights out across the World 8:30-9:30

by Amy Judd | March 28, 2009 at 07:18 am

2709 views | 65 Recommendations | 46 comments

Earth Hour 2009 took place in major cities around the world, and thousands of lights went out from 8:30 to 9:30pm to help raise awareness about climate change.

Over a billion people took part in Earth Hour 2009.

It is now over for 2009, and while some cities seem disappointed with what happened or didn't happen, most people seem to just be glad they took part and had their say.

Google Maps is tracking lights out across the world.

Tracking Earth Hour:

Earth Hour is slowing making its way across Canada. It is now Earth Hour on the West Coast and it's good to see so many lights have gone out.

South America is celebrating Earth Hour.

The hour of 8:30 is starting to hit Canada and Newfoundland will be the first province to celebrate Earth Hour!

England went dark for Earth Hour.

At 8:30pm in Central Europe all major cities turned off all non-essential lights.

The Great Pyramids of Giza have gone dark as Egypt celebrates Earth Hour.

Thousands of people gathered in Melbourne for a concert and some of the cities famous landmarks were dimmed or turned off for one hour.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House lights were turned off, and thousands of people gathered in Federation Square in Melbourne to listen to a concert in the dark. The whole concert was powered by bicycle energy.

Beijing's Bird's Nest went dark for an hour when Earth Hour was celebrated in China.

The first Earth Hour began in Sydney in March 2007 and the city's mayor spread the world at an international large cities conference in New York a month later. By 2008, more than 350 cities around the world participated and organizers with the WWF say 3,000 cities and towns are turning off lights this year.

Some of the cities that took part in Earth Hour 2009:

Auckland

Sydney

Melbourne

Suva

Seoul

Beijing (the first time they have taken part)

Tokyo

Kuala Lumpar

Mumbai

Bangkok

Taipei

Abu Dhabi

Dubai

Jakarta

Athens

Cairo

Cape Town

Berlin

Prague

Paris

Madrid

Rome

Venice

Florence

London

Dublin

Halifax

Toronto

Ottawa

Charlottetown

New York City

Washington DC

Miami

Winnipeg

Vancouver

Seattle

Los Angeles

Las Vegas

Honolulu

Kauai

Maui

Vancouver was one of the last cities to go dark for Earth Hour.

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photropics

at 12:36 on March 28th, 2009

my neighbourhood has VOTED EARTH!
this is in Athens capital of Greece..

photropics has contributed a photo to this story.

francisrivera

at 23:57 on March 28th, 2009

When I went for work last night, It was pitch black.

The Philippines had the most cities that went dark in participation of this Global Event.

Yeb Sano of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the Philippines (WWF) said the Philippines had the most number of cities and towns participating in the event. Hours before the countdown, he told Inquirer that a total of 647 cities and municipalities around the country had pledged to sign up for Earth Hour.

Fad Manaf

at 05:55 on March 29th, 2009

People gatheredfor the Walk of Hope organized by WWF-Malaysia.The 30 min Walk of Hope, which had kick off at 7pm from Persiaran CapSquare and continue along Jalan Ampang,Kuala Lumpur before heading back to its starting point.

check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/photoplayfad/ for picture

Fred Miller

at 12:40 on March 28th, 2009

Just added especially for you, Uwe : the shot from Space by Astronaut Sunita Williams

JeffHuang

at 12:46 on March 28th, 2009

That is one nice picture. thanks fred miller.

lionslair

at 16:24 on March 28th, 2009

Photo taken from below the lookout in Kings Park Western Australia. This photo shows the main buildings in Perth with most of its lights out. The bright AMP sign did go out as we were leaving.

lionslair has contributed a photo to this story.

HighPlainsSifter

at 16:42 on March 28th, 2009

Only 5:40 here, but I will turn them out. I was distressed by a guy that owned an Ice Cream store and said he thought the whole thing was stupid. He said he was buying and putting up extra lights just to show how stupid it was, by commiting a stupid act.

I can only hope that the pres fines him some carbon credits!

vesitata

at 17:18 on March 28th, 2009

The city of Szeged in Hungary has also participated in this event. And let's not forget about another important issue which could also be mentioned besides global warming. Light pollution is not only making the starry skies almost invisible from larger cities, but it also has effects on our health. The efficient lighting of streets and monuments can not only save us otherwise wasted energy, but also makes it possible for future generations to gaze at the beauties of the universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution

By the way..2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. http://www.astronomy2009.org

My photo gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22278827@N04

rumana husain

at 08:19 on March 29th, 2009

seems like we in karachi have been celebrating earth hour for some hours every day for the past two years now without any fanfare!

Paschen

at 07:47 on March 28th, 2009

It was observed here in Japan as well. I wonder what this would look like from the Space Station or a sat.?

slikamoe

at 14:51 on March 28th, 2009

Picture taken in Zurich (Switzerland) after the earth hour. You see the Grossmünster, one of Zurich's monuments, exposed by spots.

slikamoe has contributed a photo to this story.

corky100

at 15:58 on March 28th, 2009

Liverpool joins in the Earth Hour event, with the normally illuminated 3 Graces Buildings, Cathedral amd other buildings shrouded in Darkness

corky100 has contributed a photo to this story.

kajvin

at 16:17 on March 28th, 2009

Around the World IKEA switch off the light on their sign-um sign

kajvin has contributed a photo to this story.

lefty_liberated

at 16:34 on March 28th, 2009

I'm sitting in the dark right now!~ Woohoo!! Earth Hour NYC in the House Baby!

Edmund Yung

at 17:27 on March 28th, 2009

Maybe most of the people in KL knew about Earth Hour campaign, but the other cities in Malaysia such as Miri, people there don't really knew about it, just check out this blog... http://kevinng86.blogspot.com/2009/03/mirian-haih.html

Edmund Yung has contributed a photo to this story.

Amy Judd

at 18:20 on March 28th, 2009

That is so silly, what is the point!?

bals

at 18:24 on March 28th, 2009

Earth Hour 2009 @ SS17 , Subang Jaya , Malaysia

bals has contributed a photo to this story.

ice15

at 19:19 on March 28th, 2009

As Singapore participated in 2009's Vote for Earth, Lights from the Central Business District were turned off, even the famous Landmark at the Singapore River, the Merlion, was in the dark for an hour.

ice15 has contributed a photo to this story.

TAN_GengHui

at 20:34 on March 28th, 2009

It's great to be part of this worldwide event and spreading the message of taking good care of our Planet Earth !

Let's all make a difference !

http://www.photojournalist-tgh.tv/photojournalism/earth-hour-2009-in-singapore-esplanade-park

Do check out my blog post !

awe2020

at 20:39 on March 28th, 2009

Most of my neighbours turned off their lights, while many others either simply didn't know about it or just wouldn't care.... let us just do our bit to save the WORLD !

awe2020 has contributed a photo to this story.

m o d e

at 20:50 on March 28th, 2009

Maldives celebrates earth hour

m o d e has contributed a photo to this story.

lefty_liberated

at 20:58 on March 28th, 2009

Congratulations World !!!! Much Love !

dulosis

at 21:05 on March 28th, 2009

Thanks to everyone who participated! Here in Moscow there were a few well-known buildings that turned off their lights, but walking down Tverskaya Ulitsa you'd hardly know the hour was different from any other, except perhaps for the lit advertisements encouraging people to join in.

Paschen

at 21:44 on March 28th, 2009

Great update and tracking Amy. Thank you.

anton_mihis

at 22:32 on March 28th, 2009

Romanians also celebrated Earth Hour.

anton_mihis has contributed a photo to this story.

Fad Manaf

at 05:33 on March 29th, 2009

hi everyone!! im new here

militeng

at 06:20 on March 29th, 2009

Few minutes before 8:30pm everyone was shouting "Close the light (in different languages)".

militeng has contributed a photo to this story.

Fred Miller

at 06:53 on March 29th, 2009

Well the lights may have gone out but the folks didn't just sit there, instead they lit up each other's lives by interacting with each other across the globe via their stories and photos. That is what raised the event to a new level.

Here's an email I got from Perth :

Wheel sends Earth Hour into a spin

Kate Macpherson
March 28, 2009

Wheel of Perth

When Perth switched off for Earth Hour yesterday, spectators were able to witness the glory of our city in shadows from the energy-guzzling rotational vantage point of the Wheel of Perth.

The riverside ferris wheel had angered some by deciding to continue spinning during the environmental awareness event, churning through plenty of power in the process.

A long list of iconic buildings and globally recognised landmarks turned off their lights at 8.30pm on Saturday to show their support for Earth Hour.

Started in Sydney in 2007, the event has developed into one of the biggest global stands against climate change.

"We've got over 2400 cities and towns across the world and 83 countries," Earth Hour spokesperson Helen Pitman said.

The wheel of Perth had agreed to turn off its non-essential lights and air conditioning, but will keep running throughout the hour.

On Friday WA Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said keeping the wheel running was a bit contradictory to the cause.

"I was wondering why they were going to be running the wheel during Earth Hour when hopefully there is nothing to see because the lights will be off," she said.

"It will be using a lot of energy ... I would have thought the better message would have been not to run it."

The organisers see things differently.

"It's not really about the energy saved in that hour ... really it's about participation," Ms Pitman said.

"If people are going down and making a real effort to go and see what’s happening ... that’s really more important, that the message is getting through to them, other than the one hour they might shut down their energy level."

She said Earth Hour was being held to help raise the profile of global warming before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year, so participation and raising awareness was the main aim.