The Colosseum in Rome, Red Square in Moscow, the skyscrapers of Hong Kong plunged into darkness.
Cities around the world turned off their lights for an hour on Saturday March 27 for Earth Hour, an operation intended to mobilize against climate change and for the protection of nature.
The event kicked off in Asian metropolises where the lights of the skyscrapers went out at 8:30 p.m. local time.
In Singapore, people watched the skyscrapers go down on the waterfront. In a nearby park, Gardens by the Bay, futuristic-looking sculptures saw their lights go down as well.
In Hong Kong, forests of towers have been left in the dark, as has the historic Namdaemun Gate in Seoul.
In Thailand, Bangkok's hugely popular CentralWorld mall set off a countdown, and at 8:30 p.m. its outdoor windows went out for an hour.
Cities in Asia and Australia turned off their lights for an hour to mark #EarthHour, which was designed to focus on nature conservation and climate change 🎥 @Reuters pic.twitter.com/8sP5gOE206
- AsiaNews (@AsiaNews_FR) March 27, 2021
In Europe, many sites and monuments have successively been plunged into darkness, over time zones: the Colosseum in Rome, Red Square in Moscow, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Palace of Westminster and the illuminated signs of Piccadilly Circus in London or the three floors of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Il #Colosseo a #Roma, Palazzo Vecchio a #Firenze e l'Arena di #Verona 💚🌍💡
L'Ora della #Terra è arriveata anche in #Italia, ora aspettiamo le vostre foto a lume di candela, ognuno di noi può fare la sua parte per il #pianeta # Connect2Earth # EarthHour2021 #EarthHour pic.twitter.com/zaPnSLXf5U
- wwfitalia (@WWFitalia) March 27, 2021
Antoni Gaudi's famous Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, ​​northeastern Spain, and the Schönbrunn Imperial Palace in Vienna are also among the many sites, monuments and buildings that went out between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. local time.
"It's fantastic that parliament is once again taking part in Earth Hour, joining other landmarks around the country and around the world to raise awareness of climate change," said Lindsay Hoyle. , Speaker of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.
Finally, following the sun, it was the monuments of America that then extinguished their fires, from the obelisk in central Buenos Aires to the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro via the BBVA skyscraper in Mexico City.
"Nature is in free fall"
This annual mobilization ("Heure de la Planète" in French), organized by WWF, is intended to call for action on climate change and the environment.
This year, the organizers wanted to highlight the link between the destruction of nature and the increasing incidence of diseases like Covid-19.
"Whether it's the decline of pollinators, dwindling numbers of fish in oceans and rivers, the disappearance of forests or the more general loss of biodiversity, the evidence is mounting that nature is in free fall, "said Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, which has been organizing the Earth Hour since 2007.
"Protecting nature is our moral responsibility, but losing it also increases our vulnerability to pandemics, accelerates climate change and threatens our food security," he added.
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