SYDNEY: Australia’s largest city will be plunged into darkness for an hour on Saturday in an attempt at a world first blackout to raise awareness of global warming, organisers say.
A successful switch-off could then be copied by major cities around the world in a drive to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, according to international conservation group WWF.
The lights will go out in landmark headquarters buildings in Sydney’s central business district, on the iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House, and in tens of thousands of suburban homes. ‘Earth Hour’, which begins at 7:30 pm (0930 GMT) on March 31, has been planned for 10 months by WWF in partnership with city authorities, businesses and a major newspaper group.
A thousand businesses have signed up, including many of the top blue-chip companies on the Australian stock market — and even McDonald’s is going to turn off its ‘Golden Arches’ signs. Scientists link dangerous global temperature increases to the greenhouse effect, in which gases emitted by burning fossil fuels to produce energy trap heat in the atmosphere.
Last month Paris conducted a similar campaign, dimming lights for five minutes in the French capital and turning off the lights of the Eiffel Tower.
Twenty-seven thousand Sydney households have also registered their support online, though many times that number are expected to participate in the blackout.
The only lights deliberately left on will be those connected with public safety, such as streetlights. Top restaurants have signed up and will serve diners by candlelight, with some offering meals using local produce rather than ingredients flown or shipped in from abroad.
“We’re not asking people to go and live in a cave and eat cold beans; that can’t be the way we approach the problem of global warming,” WWF Australia communications director Andy Ridley said.
Ridley said that if successful, the Sydney blackout would be a world first.
Australia, already the driest inhabited continent on earth, is expected to be particularly hard hit by global warming and has already claimed a world first in fighting climate change.
