2009年“地球一小时”活动中熄灯前后的国家大剧院

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"地球一小时"始于2007年3月31日，澳大利亚悉尼熄灯一小时。当晚，大约有220万悉尼家庭和企业熄灯一小时悉尼成功减少了10.2％的用电量。一年以后，2008年3月29日，"地球一小时"已成为一项全球性并持续发展的活动，超过35个国家多达5000万人参与其中。今年，在"低碳"越来越受关注的中国，越来越多的城市加入到这个活动当中，共同创造这个美丽的"黑暗时刻"，共同为地球的明天做出贡献。 

This Saturday evening, some of the world's most iconic spots will go dark in honor of Earth Hour. Among them are the Sydney Opera House, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, to name just a few.

Businesses and households in more than 100 countries and regions will also be part of the campaign, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also calls for support for the initiative.

"Earth Hour is a way for citizens of the world to send a clear message: they want action in climate change."

In China, almost 20 cities have registered to participate in Earth Hour.

In Beijing, the National Centre for the Performing Arts will join in the campaign for the second year. Wei Ping from the center says all the landscape lamps and the illumination system in the public area, offices and theaters will be switched off. As a music and dance epic will be onstage during that time, only the emergency fire lights will be left on.

"The audiences can see large posters about Earth Hour outside the building. And we will also hand out pamphlets. What's more, we have already made a promo about the campaign that will be aired before the performance, calling for the audiences to opt for a low-carbon lifestyle in their everyday lives."

Wei Ping says last year, the center's participation in Earth Hour caused a buzz in the neighborhood, with hundreds of citizens coming out to witness the moment.

"After turning off all the lights at home, an old lady came to see us switch off our illumination system. So I think for the "lights out" initiative, no matter if it is done by the Forbidden City, the National Centre for the Performing Arts or ordinary people, we all have the unanimous goal of making our planet a better place."

While admitting the energy reductions brought about by a one hour "lights out" campaign is certainly not sufficient to turn the tide of climate-changing carbon emissions, Su Xiaowei, Earth Hour manager for China, says the WWF has made this week low-carbon week in China, encouraging people to take one easy low-carbon action every day.

"For people who don't care about environment issues, it's really a way to get those people involved. We want people to feel like being environmentally-friendly could be fun and easy."

The WWF also stresses that Earth Hour will be followed by more new campaigns to get people involved in tackling climate change.

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