From Pyramids to Paris, landmarks to go dark for Earth Hour | Grist

Sydney's iconic Harbor Bridge and Opera House will help kick off the energy-saving marathon, with Egypt's Pyramids and Sphinx, the Trevi Fountain and Tower of Pisa in Italy, and all major landmarks in Paris to take part, led by a five-minute blackout of the Eiffel Tower.

World-famous landmarks including the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, and Beijing's Forbidden City will go dark Saturday as millions turn out the lights for "Earth Hour," a rolling grassroots movement aimed at fighting climate change.

Now in its fourth year, the event looks set to be the biggest yet with thousands of cities and towns in 125 countries -- 37 more than last year -- pledging to take part.

Despite December's fractious Copenhagen summit and recent controversy over climate science, the public still wants meaningful action to avert catastrophic global warming, according to Earth Hour founder Andy Ridley. "There appears to be some fatigue to the politics around it ... But people are far more motivated this year than they were last year," he told AFP in Sydney.

Now run by the WWF, Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million people switched off the lights in their homes and businesses for 60 minutes to make a point about electricity consumption and carbon pollution.

The campaign went global the following year, and this Saturday, more than 1,200 of the world's best-known sites will kill their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time in what organizers describe as a "24-hour wave of hope and action."

A raft of multinational companies including Google, Coca-Cola, Hilton, McDonalds, Canon, HSBC, and IKEA have endorsed Earth Hour 2010 and pledged to darken their offices worldwide in support.

Sydney's iconic Harbor Bridge and Opera House will help kick off the energy-saving marathon, with Egypt's Pyramids and Sphinx, the Trevi Fountain and Tower of Pisa in Italy, and all major landmarks in Paris to take part, led by a five-minute blackout of the Eiffel Tower.

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From Pyramids to Paris, landmarks to go dark for Earth Hour Grist