Manila leads Philippines in WWF initiative

Erratum:  It has been reported that Pasay City, and not Manila City, would play the flagship role in this WWF initiative.  Pasay City is part of the national capital region, which is composed of 16 cities and one municipality, more commonly known as Metro Manila.  The city will shut lights off along Roxas Boulevard's seaside strip for an hour on March 29, according to The Philippine Star. 

Manila joins hundreds of urban dwellings around the world in this year's Earth Hour.  The capital of the Philippines leads the country as thousands of individuals experience artificial power outage between 8 to 9pm on March 29, as a contribution to the minimization of carbon emissions.

"The people of Manila care deeply about climate change and we are united in our resolve to meet this challenge in the best way that we can," a blurb on the Earth Hour website indicates.  "This is why the City of Manila has teamed with WWF to make Earth Hour 2008 a success around the world by being the lead city in Philippines participating in the simple but momentous act of turning off the lights for one hour."

Currently, more than a dozen non-profit and for-profit organizations from all over the Philippines have signed up and petitioned their involvement in the event.

Ask the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour

The initiative started on March 31 2007 when 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour. This massive collective effort reduced the city's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year.

WWF and the city of Manila invite businesses and individuals to join arms for mother nature.  Information on how you, your business or local community can get involved in Earth Hour 2008 can be found on the EarthHour.org.

Other participating cities as of March 12 2008 include: