Earth Hour

英国大使馆文化教育处

Earth Hour is an annual event which asks people to switch off all lights and use no electricity for an hour. The aim is to get people thinking about the planet they live on and the energy they use.

What is Earth Hour？

Earth Hour is an annual global campaign that encourages people and businesses around the world to switch off electricity at the same time for one hour. Earth Hour started in Australia in 2007 when 2.2 million people in the city of Sydney turned off all non-essential lights for an hour. Since then it has grown to a massive global event. Every year landmarks and well-known buildings around the world take part and “go dark” for Earth Hour. The campaign even went into space when astronauts reduced power on the International Space Station in 2011.

Who organises Earth Hour？

Earth Hour is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature （WWF）. It was started by Andy Ridley， who is executive director of Earth Hour Global， WWF. He came up with the idea of Earth Hour because he wanted to raise awareness of environmental issues by asking people to do something positive to help the planet. Switching off the lights for an hour can make a small difference to the amount of energy we use but Earth Hour is also a symbolic event to make people think about the problems of climate change.

Why March？

The end of March is around the time of the spring and autumn equinoxes in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively， so sunset times in both hemispheres are at similar times. This means that a global “lights out” event has most visual impact at this time of year.

Activity  1    Vocabulary

Match the vocabulary with the correct definition and write a–g next to the numbers 1–7.

1 ________ to switch off

2 ________ to take part

3 ________ to come up with

4 ________ to raise awareness

5 ________ sunset

6 ________ a landmark

7 ________ an equinox

a. to participate

b. to turn off

c. when day and night are the same length

d. to inform people

e. a very well-known building or place

f. when the sun disappears

g. to invent

Activity  2    True or false

Are the sentences true or false？

1. Earth Hour events are held every year.

2. Earth Hour started in Malaysia in 2007.

3. Famous buildings switch on their lights  for Earth Hour.

4. The World Wide Fund for Nature started Earth Hour  to make people think about environmental issues.

5. It is spring in both the northern and southern  hemispheres in March.

True False

True False

True False

True False

True False