Earth Hour Pictures: World’s Iconic Buildings Go Dark

The bright green lights that typically illuminate the Petronas
Towers in Kuala Lumpur—the tallest twin buildings in the world—were
turned off for a recent Earth Hour^[1]—an annual event aimed at
raising awareness about energy consumption.

Dozens of other iconic landmarks around the world, including the
Parthenon in Greece, the Golden Gate Bridge in California, and
Australia’s Sydney Harbor Bridge, have participated in the annual
event, which is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The first Earth Hour took place in Sydney in March 2007, with
the goal of raising money to help protect the Great Barrier
Reef.

Since then, Earth Hour has grown and spread around the world.
Thousands of cities now switch off many lights for the hour in a
symbol of environmental awareness. More than 170 countries take
part, along with dozens of UNESCO
World Heritage Sites^[2].

Connecting the event to a wider message, then-UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon said in 2015: “Earth Hour is a way for the
citizens of the world to send a clear message that they want action
on climate change.”

Earth Hour takes place from 8:30 to 9:30 pm, in each time zone
around the planet.

Here are some pictures of famous monuments observing the
darkness of Earth Hour in recent years.

Dating to 447 B.C., the Parthenon in Athens is one of the most
famous surviving buildings of ancient Greece. The city of Athens
has turned off its buildings’ lights for Earth Hour and asked
locals to follow suit.

Sydney Harbor Bridge is the largest steel arch bridge in the
world, connecting its city’s north and south harbors. Thousands of
houses and businesses in Sydney go dark on Earth Hour.

Built as an archway for an international world fair in 1889, the
Eiffel Tower got some help from
Spiderman^[3] in turning its lights
off on Earth Hour 2014.

Times Square is the busiest commercial intersection in New York
City and the world’s
most visited tourist attraction^[4]. For the first time
ever, in 2014 the city called in a specialist to turn off its New
Year’s Eve ball, which typically remains on throughout the
year.

In the Belarusian capital of Minsk, the monument to humanist
Francysk Skaryna is usually lit by the bright purple lights from
the National Library. Big department stores and universities also
turned off their lights in Minsk for the event.

The Brandenburg Gate was built in 1791 as an entryway to Berlin.
It survived World War II but with extensive damage. The Earth Hour
motto in Germany in 2014: “You don’t need to be a superhero to take
action on climate change.”

The Alhambra, a fortress-turned-palace that dates to 1258,
watches over the city of Granada in southern Spain.