Global blackout: cities come together to raise awareness about the climate crisis

Every March 23, since 2007, dozens of countries in the world come together to raise awareness about climate change. The Earth Hour It is an annual tradition promoted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). This year, a total of 124 countries are expected to join.

This movement invites people, governments and companies to turn off the lights for one hour (between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., local time in each country) and reflect on environmental challenges. In that sense, the lights of the main monuments will remain paid.

In its eighteenth edition – its sixteenth in Spain – the initiative has involved hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world who have decided dedicate an hour of your time to sustainable and responsible activities with nature.

Cities involved

Over the course of hours, iconic monuments of Madrid such as the Puerta de Alcalá and the Cibeles fountain or, far from the capital, monuments such as the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or the cathedrals of Burgos and Valencia, went out, inviting millions of people to reflect on the climate crisis and the importance of involving the entire society to stop it.

Hours before, the Sydney Opera House, the Tokyo Tower and the National Stadium in Beijing had already gone out; and the same has been happening in the rest of the world as the clock in each city shows half past eight at night: the London Eye, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, the Vatican Basilica, the Gate of Brandenburg in Berlin.

In America, among the icons that are the protagonists of this blackout, the New York Empire State Building, Niagara Falls and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro stand out, united by an initiative that crosses the world after 2023 became the warmest year in the Earth for as long as records exist, bringing with them extreme weather phenomena such as floods, droughts or heat waves.

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