Global landmarks from Sydney’s Opera House to the Forbidden City to the glittering Las Vegas Strip were scheduled to turn off their lights yesterday, as activists bid to reinvigorate the climate change fight.
Hundreds of millions of homes, in scores of cities scattered around 125 countries were also expected to join the great Earth Hour switch-off, which comes just months after disappointing UN climate talks in Copenhagen.
Iconic structures like the Empire State Building and Egypt’s pyramids were to follow conservation group WWF’s call to turn off the lights in the name of environmentalism, creating a wave of darkness that rolled across the world.
PHOTO: EPA
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the campaign, now in its fourth year and expected to attract record participation, “both a warning and a beacon of hope.”
“Climate change is a concern for each of us. Solutions are within our grasp and are ready to be implemented by individuals, communities, businesses and governments around the globe,” Ban said.
Sydney’s Opera House and Harbour Bridge were to informally kick off proceedings at 8:30pm along with millions of Australian households.
The pattern was to be replicated at the same local time across the world, spreading across Asia to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas and including 1,200 famous landmarks.
Beijing’s Forbidden City and Bird’s Nest Stadium were among the participants along with dozens of cities in China, the world’s biggest carbon polluter, where giant panda Mei Lan is an Earth Hour ambassador.
Hong Kong’s renowned neon waterfront was to temporarily dim, as well as the Singapore Flyer observation wheel and office buildings in Jakarta and Seoul, before India’s massive urban centers of Delhi and Mumbai join the power-down.
London’s Big Ben and Manchester United’s Old Trafford soccer ground were set to take part amongst Europe’s best known spots including Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral and the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
In the US, about 30 states were on board, with Mount Rushmore, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Chicago’s 110-story Sears Tower all due to go dark.
In Bangkok, however, the city’s authorities were under military orders to halt their Earth Hour campaign for security reasons, as anti-government protesters planned another major rally.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney and now enjoys widespread support both from the public and big business, including Google, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.
This year, even users of ubiquitous Twitter and Facebook were able to show their support with special applications that turn their displays dark.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS