李春生

Twenty four cities around the world will fall into shadow next month as homes and businesses turn off the lights to raise awareness about global warming, or-ganizers said Tuesday.

The “Earth Hour” initiative started in Australias biggest city Sydney last year when an estimated 2.2 million people flicked the switch — leaving the Sydney Opera House bathed in moonlight and the Harbour Bridge blacked out.

Organizer Andy Ridley said Sydneys 60-minutes of darkness generated huge interest around the world and 23 other cities from the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and the Middle East had now signed up to be part of the 2008 event.

The eight latest cities to join “Earth Hour” are Atlanta, San Francisco and Phoenix in the US; Thailands capital Bangkok; Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal in Canada and Dublin in Ireland.

They join Australian cities Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide; Den-marks Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense; the Philippine capital Manila, Fijis biggest city Suva, Christchurch in New Zealand; Chicago; Tel Aviv and Toronto.

Ridley said he expected the “Earth Hour” concept, which is managed by the conservation group WWF, to extend beyond the borders of these countries on the scheduled start time of 8:00 pm local time on Saturday March 29.

“I think it already has become much bigger,” he said.

“The idea was that anyone could do it, whether they were in a small village in France or a city like Sydney.”

Ridley said the Sydney event, in which residents were asked to switch off lights and appliances for one hour, had raised awareness about the problem of global warming while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by conserving energy.

“I know that on the night we thought we might be able to cut energy use in the city by five percent but it ended up being 10.1 percent” he said.

He said he hoped Earth Hour provided a “very big visual message” to politicians that climate change must be addressed quickly.

“The problem is massive but we do make a difference when we all take action,” he said.

活動(dòng)組織者于本周二稱，全球24個(gè)城市將于下個(gè)月“陷入黑暗”。因?yàn)檫@些城市的家庭和企業(yè)屆時(shí)將集體熄燈，以引起人們對(duì)全球變暖問題的關(guān)注。

“地球一小時(shí)”活動(dòng)于去年在澳大利亞最大的城市悉尼首次舉行。當(dāng)時(shí)全市約有220萬居民集體熄燈，沒有燈光的悉尼歌劇院沐浴在月光里，海灣大橋也熄燈響應(yīng)。

活動(dòng)組織者安迪· 里德利說，悉尼的“熄燈一小時(shí)”活動(dòng)引起了世界各國(guó)的極大興趣。目前，亞太、北美、歐洲以及中東地區(qū)的23個(gè)城市已報(bào)名參加今年的活動(dòng)。

最新響應(yīng)的八個(gè)城市是：美國(guó)的亞特蘭大、舊金山和菲尼克斯、泰國(guó)首都曼谷、加拿大的渥太華、溫哥華和蒙特利爾，以及愛爾蘭的都柏林。

此外，參與該活動(dòng)的城市還包括：澳大利亞的悉尼、珀思、墨爾本、堪培拉、布里斯班、阿德萊德，丹麥的哥本哈根、阿爾胡斯、奧爾堡和歐登塞，菲律賓首都馬尼拉，斐濟(jì)最大的城市蘇瓦，新西蘭的教堂城；芝加哥；特拉維夫以及多倫多。

由世界野生動(dòng)物基金會(huì)發(fā)起的“地球一小時(shí)”活動(dòng)計(jì)劃于當(dāng)?shù)貢r(shí)間3月29日晚八點(diǎn)準(zhǔn)時(shí)開始。里德利表示，他希望這一理念能越過國(guó)界，影響更多的國(guó)家。

他說：“現(xiàn)在這個(gè)活動(dòng)的影響已經(jīng)擴(kuò)大了很多?！?/p>

“其實(shí)每個(gè)人都能做到這件事，無論你在法國(guó)的一個(gè)小鄉(xiāng)村還是在像悉尼這樣的大城市?！?/p>

里德里說，悉尼的這個(gè)活動(dòng)在節(jié)能減排的同時(shí)，提高了人們對(duì)全球變暖問題的關(guān)注意識(shí)?；顒?dòng)當(dāng)天，悉尼市民被要求關(guān)閉電燈和電器一小時(shí)。

他說：“我知道，大家以為當(dāng)晚的活動(dòng)可能會(huì)節(jié)約5%的能源，但實(shí)際上我們節(jié)約了10.1%的能源。”

里德里表示，他希望“地球一小時(shí)”活動(dòng)能向政界人士傳遞一個(gè)“具有很強(qiáng)沖擊力的視覺信息”，讓他們意識(shí)到治理氣候變化刻不容緩。

他說：“這個(gè)問題的確嚴(yán)重，但我們一旦采取集體行動(dòng)時(shí)，結(jié)果就不一樣了。”