Canada leads world in lights-out campaign
So far, 49 cities, towns and hamlets from coast to coast have joined the international Earth Hour movement, which aims to get people around the world to switch their lights off March 29 from 8 to 9 p.m. Thirty-four of Canada's officially participating municipalities are in Ontario, 12 in the GTA.
Australia, home to the first Earth Hour last year, comes in a distant second, with 10 participating municipalities, while the U.S. has nine.
But there's still time to join, and World Wildlife Fund organizers anticipate the numbers will increase.
"We're completely amazed by the response in Canada," said Tara Wood, spokesperson for WWF-Canada, adding she couldn't explain the overwhelming flood of environmental consciousness being shown by Canadians.
"We thought we'd roll out (Earth Hour) in Toronto and see what happened. It's taken off across the country in a grassroots way."
The first Earth Hour was held in Australia in 2007 and organized by the local WWF. An estimated 2.2 million Australians participated, reducing demand on the power grid by 10 per cent.
It may not be a solution to global warming, "but it's a step," Wood noted. "And it lets people see how individual actions add up. Earth Hour is a great celebration of what we can accomplish together and it gets us thinking about simple steps we can take to make every hour Earth Hour."
Turning off unneeded lights and appliances and changing to energy-saving bulbs could cut annual emissions by 5 per cent, Wood said.
A similar highly successful program called Lights Out was launched in San Francisco last year. Organizers have harnessed growing interest in energy conservation across the U.S. with a national initiative, Lights Out America. An LOA event had been scheduled to coincide with Earth Hour, but organizers have now joined the global event rather than doing it on their own.
Related News

Hydro wants B.C. residents to pay an extra $2 a month for electricity
VANCOUVER - The British Columbia government says the province’s Crown power utility is applying for a 2.3-per-cent rate increase starting in April, adding about $2 a month to the average residential bill.
A statement from the Energy Ministry says it’s the sixth year in a row that BC Hydro has applied for an increase below the rate of inflation.
It says rates are currently 15.6 per cent lower than the cumulative rate of inflation over the last seven years, starting in 2017-2018, and 12.4 per cent lower than the 10-year rates plan established by the previous government in 2013.
The ministry says the…