Global Warming: Lights out in Sydney

ess Trust of India / Mumbai/Sydney March 31, 2007

Lights have been turned off across Australia's largest city, Sydney, in a mass event aimed at raising awareness of global warming.

At 1930 local time (1500 hrs IST) lights went out in office blocks and homes as well as city landmarks like the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

Updated at 1350 hrs: Sydney, Australia's largest city, will be plunged into darkness for an hour tonight as the city undergoes a self-imposed blackout to raise awareness of global warming.

In an event that organisers say is a world's first, residents and businesses across the city of four million will flick off the lights for "Earth Hour" at 7.30 pm (1500 IST).

Tourists will have to view the famous sails of the Sydney Opera House by moonlight, while the Harbour Bridge's steel span and the clown's face of the waterside Luna Park fairground will also be blacked out.

The neon on a huge blinking Coca-Cola advertising hoarding in Sydney's Kings Cross nightclub district will flicker off for the first time since it was installed in 1974.

Restaurants have agreed to serve diners by candlelight, and students will attend schools for special Earth Hour parties.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which has spent 10 months organising the event with city authorities and a major newspaper group, said there had been a massive groundswell of support across the city.

WWF Australia spokesman Andy Ridley said the blackout would show Sydney in a new perspective.