The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched on Monday Earth Hour in Bucharest and Romanians are invited to join the Earth Hour 2009.
This is the first time when Romania joins the official global campaign. The capital city of Bucharest as well as other important cities in Romania: Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov, Botosani, Cluj-Napoca and Tulcea will take part in the action.
Earth Hour aims to reach more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world, inviting communities, businesses and governments to switch off lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. on March 28 and sending a powerful global message that we care enough about climate change to take action.
In Bucharest lights will be turned off at famous places as the Palace Hall, the Romanian Opera House, the Romanian Athenaeum, the Arts Museum and the Military Club. Romanian MEP Daciana Sarbu who accepted the WWF invitation to be the Earth Hour ambassador promotes the Earth Hour campaign in Romania.
"It is vital to tell Romanians how important fighting against weather changes is," she explained. "We must learn to care. It's the only way to ensure a sustainable future to ourselves and our children."
According to the WWF Programme Manager Luminita Tanasie, for the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote -- Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.
This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard. Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour.
In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.