It’s Earth Hour around the World and millions of people in over 7000 cities in 150 countries across all 7 continents are switching their lights off for an hour to raise awareness for the planet.
In Berlin, the Brandenburger Tor went completely dark for an hour, together with other famous Landmarks throughout the city and the WWF-Youth performed a special Black-light-Show, forming the words “Earth Hour 2014” and other names and places chosen by the audience.
Earth Hour 2013 took place on Saturday, March 23-2013 in over 7000 cities, towns and municipalities in more than 150 countries and territories around the globe and again this year, Berlin was one of those cities.
Exact at 8:30pm, the Brandenburger Tor went black for a whole hour and during this hour Singer-Songwriter Ashley Hicklin performed his song “City Lights” unplugged and a neon sign, showing the slogan “Ja zur Energiewende!” was illuminated by a group of WWF Members riding bicycles.
More than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011 alone, sending a powerful message for action on climate change. In 2012, a new record was set, with 150 countries and territories across 6,494 towns and cities around the world.
In Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate, the Television Tower and the Red City Hall went completely dark for one hour from 8:30pm – 9:30pm on Saturday 31.03.2012. As part of the event, a map of the world was created by the WWF, using hundreds of colored-paper-surrounded tealights in front of the Brandenburg Gate. In addition, lanterns designed like the earth were handed out to the audience.
So yesterday was Earth Hour, a world wide event organized by WWF. Hundreds of cities in 131 countries around the globe switched off their lights for one hour, from 8:30 pm till 9:30 pm, 26 March 2011.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change.
In Berlin, the Brandenburger Tor, the Rote Rathaus as well as the Fernsehturm and many other public buildings turned off their lights during this hour. Hundreds of candles were build up in front of the Brandenburger Tor to form the words “Energiewende Jetzt” which means something like, “change your energy sources now” or “change to clean energy now”.