At 8.30pm in their local timezones, people all around the world will switch off their lights for Earth Hour. It all started on the 31st of March 2007, when Sydney, Australia encouraged it’s citizens to switch off as many lights around the city as possible for one hour. This put forward an important statement to the rest of the world about climate change. A statement that Sydney was able to pull together 2.2 million of it’s residents towards a simple common cause.

On the same date last year, 370 cities in 35 different countries joined in. In the country where it all started, 2008 saw 58% of Australian adults switch off their lights for one hour and throughout the world, an estimated 50 million people did the same.

This year, the event (organised by WWF) has already seen people from 2800 cities in 83 countries pledge that they will switch off their lights in a bid to show the world’s leaders that people want to see urgent action to combat climate change. Many spin-off events will take place during Earth Hour, including candlelit festivals in the woods, pub quizzes in the dark and pitch black meditation sessions. The Green Village itself will be switching the lights off in our offices and turning the site black for the occasion.

To pledge your commitment, sign up on the WWF website and spread the word to as many people as you can!