Earth Hour lights-out seeks to illuminate climate plight

Hundreds of landmarks from Paris' Eiffel Tower to the Seattle Space Needle will dim their lights on Saturday, as people around the world go briefly off-grid to mark Earth Hour with candlelight and barbecues.
      
The 60-minute annual campaign organised by the conservation group WWF encourages citizens, communities, businesses and organisations to switch the lights off for an hour from 8:30 pm to highlight the plight of planet Earth.
      
Now in its ninth year, Earth Hour's goal is not to achieve measurable electricity savings, but to raise awareness of the need for sustainable energy use, and this year also to demand action to halt planet-harming climate change.
      
"Over 170 countries and territories have already confirmed their participation; more than 1,200 landmarks and close to 40 UNESCO world heritage sites," Earth Hour head Sudhanshu Sarronwala told AFP.
      
These range from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the Acropolis in Athens, Edinburgh Castle, Big Ben, Ecuador's Quito historical centre, New York's Times Square and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
      
Earth Hour 2015 takes place just months before UN member states are meant to sign an ambitious pact in Paris in December to limit galloping global warming, and just days before a loose end-March deadline for "those parties ready to do so" to submit their carbon-curbing pledges.
      
From a small, symbolic event held in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to a global campaigning event with a festive twist.
      
This year will include a glow-in-the-dark Zumba party in the Philippines, a coordinated candlelit dinner in Finland billed as the world's largest, restaurant dinners by candlelight in London, and a power...