History Of Earth Hour.

Earth Hour first started in Sydney on 31 March 2007. It was the first Earth Hour event. There are more than 2.2 million residents and 2000 businesses participated by turning off all non-essential lights for one hour. As Sydney has started the Earth Hour event, many other cities around the world has joined the event in 2008.

 Earth Hour 2008 was held on March 29 from 8p.m. to 9p.m. at every country’s local time. It was the first anniversary of the event. It was participated by 32 countries around the world as the official flagship cities and supported by over 400 cities. Some examples of the landmarks all around the world which turned off their non-essential lighting for Earth Hour are Sydney Opera House, Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge, SM Mall of Asia, The London City Hall, Wat Arun Temple, etc. In Malaysia, Petronas Towers and KL Tower both have switched off their non-essential lighting to celebrate Earth Hour.

In Earth Hour 2008, an international online survey showed that 36 million people have participated and there was a 4 percentage point of increase in the awareness of environmental issues, such as climate change. The CBS Evening News, CNN, CNN International, The Oprah Winfrey Show, WXIA-TV and more have covered an hour-long Earth Hour special during the event. 

Sydney

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

       In 2009, Earth Hour was celebrated on March 28 from 8:30p.m. to 9:30p.m. at local time, creating a visual mandate for action on climate change effectively kick-starting the world’s first global vote. There is a result of ten times more cities participated than Earth Hour 2008 which are 88 countries and 4159 cities. The United Nations Headquarters in New York City estimated that its participation will save $102 in energy. 

     The participating television and radio stations from around the world are The National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Channel Asia, Malaysia’s 8TV, Cartoon Network, Magic 105.4 FM, ABS-CBN, XFM Naga, etc.

          Earth Hour 2010 was observed from 8:30p.m. to 9:30p.m. at respective local time, 27 March. There was a special case in Israel, which the event was held on 22 April. It is succeeds in being a global call to action to stand up, take responsibility and lead the global journey to a sustainable future. The event was said to be the biggest Earth Hour so far. Its aim is to gain more than one billion participant goal of Earth Hour 2009. There is an increase in 38 countries participated in Earth Hour 2010, which are 126 countries and about 4000 cities.

        The landmarks such as Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, the Brandenburg Gate and the Forbidden City have participated in Earth Hour 2010. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, President of Vietnam Nguyễn Minh Triết, and London Mayor Boris Johnson are the examples of Celebrity Earth Hour ambassadors.

Big Ben, London.

Eiffel Tower, Paris. 

      Besides, Earth Hour has garnered support from many corporations including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Wells Fargo, IKEA, HSBC, PwC, Accenture and Nokia Siemens Networks. In 2010, National Geographic Channel Asia, Cartoon Network, ABS-CBN were still participating Earth Hour together with GMA Network, FBNC channel, TVOntario and mnit.

         Earth Hour was held across the world at 8.30pm-9.30pm on March 26, 2011 and continues to break records for participation with 135 countries and 5251 cities taking part. It had an estimated reach of 1.8 billion people across the globe took part in the event. Earth Hour 2011 is the first Earth Hour to go beyond the hour, by asking supporters to think about what else they can do to make a difference.

         In 2011, the Forbidden City, Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, Golden Gate Bridge, Table Mountain, Christ the Redeemer statue and Sydney Opera House are some of the world's most well-known landmarks which had switched off their lights for Earth Hour's global "lights out" event. Other than that, YouTube has promoted Earth Hour by changing its logo. YouTube also added a switch on/off feature near the title of each video, so that users can change the background color from white to black.

Black YouTube.

          On 31 March 2012, Earth Hour 2012 was celebrated from 8:30p.m. to 9:30p.m. at participant’s local time. It has cemented itself as the largest voluntary action for the environment which took place in more than 7000 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories. So, it has continues its effort to go beyond the hour by launching the “I Will If You Will” campaign in February 2012.

        The campaign has promoted publicly through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and e-mail. Using YouTube as a platform, IWIYW asks everyone around the globe to share what they would be willing to do to save the planet, and what they’d expect done in return. Earth Hour 2012 went to extremes to protect the planet, with astronaut André Kuipers observing the lights off event from the International Space Station. There are more than 200,000 individuals accepting the challenge in YouTube. 

           Executive Director and Co-Founder Andy Ridley (2012) said, "Earth Hour's challenge is no longer to connect people; the challenge is to offer a reason to connect. Any movement of change begins with symbolism – it's a needed step to prove enough people care about an issue. Earth Hour is past the beginning now, and lots of people are switching their lights off every year in March. We're now at the stage of taking it beyond the hour." 

         As the changes that YouTube had made in the previous year, there were 4.6 million hits on the platform during the week of Earth Hour, with more than 200,000 people personally pledging to take a direct action beyond the hour.

        Earth Hour 2013 was observed around the globe on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30p.m. to 9:30p.m. local time. It took place in more than 7001 cities and towns and 153 countries and territories across all seven continents. The campaign has experienced its biggest growth since 2009 as hundreds of millions of people switched off their lights for an hour.

        As a first step to fight the 6000 hectares of deforestation that occur in Uganda every month, the world’s first Earth Hour Forest began in 2013. The WWF-Uganda team had identified close to 2700 hectares of degraded land. The “I Will If You Will” concept is used by the WWF-Uganda team to challenge businesses, government officials and individuals to fill it with at least 500,000 trees during the year. Standard Chartered Bank-Uganda pledged to help fill the forest with more than 250,000 trees.

        

       Not only that, FIFA has participated in Earth Hour for the third successive year, an event which supports the Football for Hope campaign. FIFA has encouraged all football supporters to participate in Earth Hour 2013. It is not only as a way of saving power but also to symbolize the importance of caring for our planet. With the support of all 208 member organizations and over 60 Football for Hope, the commitment of FIFA goes far beyond switching off all lights at the Home of FIFA in Zurich.

        People from all walks of life, from all nations around the world, are the lifeblood of the Earth Hour interconnected global community. They have proven time and time again that if you believe in something strongly enough, you can achieve amazing things. These stories aren't unique, this is happening all over the world. (Ridley, 2012)

       We can see that every year, there’s an increase in the number of countries and cities involved in the Earth Hour event. The record keeps on breaking every year as more and more people participating in the event. The date of Earth Hour 2014 was announced it will be schedule on March 29 as seen on the 2013 Earth Hour highlights.

References :
Earth Hour. History. Retrieved from http://www.earthhour.org//page/media-centre/earth-hour-history
Fox News. U.N.'s Participation in Earth Hour Is Full of Hot Air, Critics Say. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511102,00.htmlFIFA.COM. FIFA supports Earth Hour. Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/socialresponsibility/news/newsid=2040037/index.html