Thousands of cities and towns around the world join in the big switch off as part of annual green campaign Earth Hour

Lights are off but everyone's in: Thousands of cities and towns around the world join in the big switch off as part of annual green campaign Earth Hour

By Sam Creighton

PUBLISHED: 15:56 GMT, 29 March 2014 | UPDATED: 05:58 GMT, 30 March 2014

More than 7,000 towns and cities across the globe are plunging themselves into darkness to mark Earth Hour, an annual event coordinated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to raise awareness of climate change and other environmental causes.

People were encouraged to switch off all their lights for an hour from 8.30pm today, local time.

World centres like Shanghai and Sydney were among the first to flick the switches off, with Britain, France and the rest of Western Europe joining in later, followed by North America, where New York City and Las Vegas flipped the switch for a good cause.

Darkness falls: A March 29, 2014 combo shows the Empire State Building moments before and after going dark for Earth Hour - in which citizens are asked to turn off their lights for an hour from 8.30 to 9.30pm local time to show awareness of climate change

Crossroads of the world: Large billboards are black in Times Square during Earth Hour in New York, Saturday

Sin City after dark: The Las Vegas High Roller at The LINQ is dark for Earth Hour to raise awareness for climate change

Lights out! Landmarks in almost 200 countries around the world including the Houses of Parliament, pictured, have plunged into darknedd to mark Earth Hour

Seat of power: How the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben looked at 8.29pm, one minute before the switch-off. The event is arranged by the WWF

Bridge of darkness: London's Tower Bridge switches off its floodlights during the event, which lasted from 8.30pm until 9.30pm local time

As you were: The showpiece bridge fully-lit before the hour started. The event is meant to make citizens think about their effect on the planet

The dark forces of politics: Countries around the world have plunged into darkness for Earth Hour - before Britain had its turn with the Houses of Parliament

Landmark: London's Houses of Parliament before the lights were switched off at 8.30pm local time, to raise awareness of climate change and man's impact on the world

Where's it gone? Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower had its lights shut down for the global event - though much of the rest of the French capital carried on around itPlunged into darkness: People stand illuminated before Berlin's Brandenberg Gate for Earth Hour. The campaign sees lights go out at 8.30pm

Symbolic: The historic gate is a symbol of unity and German progress after standing for more than two decades next to the divide between East and West

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it: St Peter's Basilica in Rome's Vatican City loses its floodlighting to mark Earth HourThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it: St Peter's Basilica in Rome's Vatican City loses its floodlighting to mark Earth Hour

Spot the Acropolis: The famous ruins are plunged into darkness surrounded by the city of Athens as the government joins a global statement about emissionsLight of the gods: How the Acropolis hill, with the famous Parthenon temple in the centre, would normally look at night in the Greek capitalDarkness: Another view of the Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis in the Greek capital AthensIlluminated: The Greek ruins lit up with floodlights. Earth Hour is also seeing London landmarks such as Big Ben and the London Eye switch off their lights

Switched off: Florence's Duomo, the cathedral church of the northern Italian city famous for its art and culture. Tourists flock to see Michelangelo's DavidGleaming spires: How the Florence landmark looked before the lights were switched off. Almost 200 countries have taken part in the global eventLights out: The iconic colourful onion domes of St Basil's Cathedral (right) and the Spasskaya tower of the Kremlin (left) are plunged into darkness in Moscow

Landmarks: How the sites in Red Square looked before the switch-off, which is happening country-by-country across the world to raise awareness of climate changeDarkness: Red Square in Moscow The annual event is co-ordinated by the World Wide Fund for Nature and strikes every country at 8.30pm local timeNormal scene: How Moscow's Red Square, with Lenin's mausoleum in the foreground, looked before the lights were switched off at 8.30pm Russian time

Canal city: The lights go out in St Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. The central square of the city features the iconic basilica tower silhouetted against the night

Lit up: The square with the lights switched on. It is one of the main draws for tourists, but the campaign says we should think about how we use our resources

Disappearing church: The cathedral in Cologne before and after the lights were switched off for Earth Hour

Major landmarks took part in the event - in the UK Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, The London Eye, Edinburgh Castle, Brighton Pier, Durham Cathedral and Windsor Castle all going dark.

WWF estimate that 10million people across the UK will take part and the charity have roped in a host of celebrities to front the campaign, including Amanda Holden, Jack Whitehall, Stephen Fry and Eliza Doolittle.

The Singapore-leg of the campaign also drew in starpower, with stars of upcoming blockbuster The Amazing Spiderman 2, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx, leading ceremonies at the city-state's Marina Bay district.

The comic-book hero Spiderman, played by Garfield in the film, is this year's Earth Hour ambassador.

Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge were among the first landmarks around the world to dim their lights for 60 minutes during Saturday's event.

New York City's iconic Times Square was plunged into darkness, along with the Empire State Building, while in Las Vegas, Nevada, The High Roller Ferris Wheel at The LINQ hotel was temporarily deprived of its throng of alluring multi-colored lights. 

Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai Tower and Jin Mao Tower in the city's central financial district before the switch off

The same scene, just moments later, as Shanghai marked Earth Hour by switching off the lights in the city's financial district

 
Before and after: The Azadi (Freedom) tower is illuminated (left) before the lights were turned off (right) during the worldwide Earth Hour in Tehran, IranSydney Opera House before the 8.30pm switch off time. The view across the harbour is one of the world's most famous skylines

Moments later, the scene was almost unrecognisable as the area was plunged into darkness

Light replaced: The historic Buda Palace of Budapest, Hungary, is plunged into darkness, leaving the shimmering blue-green lights of a boat to shine aloneThe Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan Buddhist temple, in Bangkok, before its lights were turned off to mark Earth Hour

As the time struck 8.30pm, the temple, in Bangkok, was draped in darkness

Hong Kong's stunning waterfront skyline was unrecognisable, with the city's tallest skyscraper, the International Commerce Centre, stripped of the vast light show usually wrapped around its 118 stories.

Blazing neon signs advertising some of the world's largest brands were shut off, leaving the view of the heavily vertical southern Chinese city peppered only with tiny lights from buildings' interiors.

Earth Hour partnered with payments giant PayPal to allow donors to contribute to specific projects from Russia and India to Canada and Indonesia, using Asian fundraising site Crowdonomic.

Earth Hour chief executive Andy Ridley said before the lights went off in Singapore that the event had moved beyond symbolism to concrete action.

'If you want to get real social change you need to have symbolism,' he told AFP.

'We are seeing some really big outcomes.'

Crowds gathered under a pavilion at the West Lake in Hangzhou city, in China's Zhejiang province before Earth Hour struckThe same pavilion was pitch black once the surrounding lights were switched off. The campaign hopes to raise thousands of pounds for environmental causesTokyo Tower is illuminated after the lights were switched back on after 60 minutes of darkness to mark Earth HourTokyo Tower was almost invisible against the night sky without its lightsThe India Gate in New Delhi in full illumination. It is one of the city's key landmarks when it is brightly lit

The gate melts into the background without the lights to make it stand out

Projects under the Earth Hour Blue crowdfunding scheme - which aim to raise more than $650,000 in total - include a turtle centre in Italy and funding for forest rangers in Indonesia.

The projects seeking crowdfunding include a $24,000 effort in the Philippines to bring fibreglass boat technology to coastal communities affected by super typhoon Haiyan in November last year.

In Nepal, $100,000 is being sought for a programme called A Flame Called Hope to provide access to biogas energy for 150 households in the Terai region, reducing the need for wood as fuel and helping protect the habitat of endangered wildlife, according to the Earth Hour website.

Spiderman-2 star Garfield told journalists that he was a personal supporter of the Nepal project.

'What they are doing is turning waste into energy, it's like the cycle of life right there, if only everyone knew how simple it was,' he said.

Shareen Brown, Earth Hour Manager at WWF-UK said: 'The countdown has well and truly begun as millions of people prepare to join the Earth Hour celebrations.  From Samoa to Tahiti - and everywhere in between - it’s really inspiring to see that so many people want to take action to protect our beautiful planet. 

Malaysia's Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, lit in green before the Earth Hour 2014

The Petronas Towers switch off almost all their lights once the clocks hit 8.30pm local time

'What’s really exciting is the impact that this is having. Last year 10 million people took part in the UK and 82 per cent of those that signed up said they felt inspired to go on to live more sustainably beyond the hour. Globally we also saw the world’s first Earth Hour forest created in Uganda and more than 100,000 people supported a petition on forest legislation in Russia.

'We hope that Earth Hour 2014 inspires more people than ever to do their bit for the planet.'

The first country to take part in this year's event was Samoa, which hit 8.30pm while it was only 6.30am in London. The wave of darkness then followed the world's timezones to sweep through Bangkok, Chicago, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, Manila, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, Singapore, Sydney and Toronto, before finally ending in Tahiti (at 6.30am tomorrow in London).

Earth Hour was launched in Australia in 2007 and has grown to become the world's largest environmentally focused event. Last year, 7,000 towns and cities from 154 countries took part.

It's not just on the streets of the world's towns and cities that Earth Hour is having an impact. Search engine Google is also supporting the campaign by turning its home page black for an hour. The company uses its geo-location capabilities to work out where in the world you are accessing the internet and then, if it's between 8.30pm and 9.30pm local time it shows the special page.

Hollywood stars Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, left, and pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor, right, are just some of the celebrities WWF roped in to support Earth Hour

The China World Trade Center Tower III after the switch off. The World Wide Fund for Nature hopes the campaign will raise awareness of climate change

Google's special home page, which it has turned black to mark Earth Hour

Back to nature: A woman looks out on silhouetted buildings during Earth Hour in St Petersburg, Russia. The lights are switched off for an hour in each nation

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