The Earth Hour

In an effort to promote awareness about global warming, numerous cities around the world will turn off their lights for one hour on March 29, 2008. The idea - Earth Hour - was promoted last year by Sydney (Australia) when 2.2 million people turned off their lights .

The cities participating this year are Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Phoenix in the US; Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in Canada; Dublin in Ireland; Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense of Denmark; Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide of Australia; Bangkok, Thailand; Manila, Philippines; Fiji's biggest city Suva; Christchurch in New Zealand; and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Participating cities will switch off their lights and appliances at 8 p.m. on March 29. The conservation of electricity will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to mitigating global warming.

I think that this is an event at which every one of us can be involved, whether our home city participates or not.