Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour is a world-wide initiative to raise awareness about the environment and climate change by switching off lights for an hour in the evening. This year, Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 31 and starts at 20:30 (8:30pm) local time.

Even astronauts on the Space Station will be doing their part, watching to see if there is any  noticeable change in the amount of light from earth visible from space. Astronaut André Kuipers will be taking photos and videos from space.

Earth Hour first started in 2007 as single-city initiative in Sydney, Australia,  and has now grown into a global movement to save energy and help the environment. Earth Hour 2011 was the world’s largest event so far with people, businesses and governments in 135 countries joining in, and organisers hope that up to 1.8 billion people will take part this year.