For Earth Hour, the lights go out in the cities

The Empire State Building, seen before and after it went dark, was among the New York landmarks involved in Earth Hour. (Timothy A. Clary/ AFP/ Getty Images)

CHICAGO - From an Antarctic research base and the Great Pyramids of Egypt to the Empire State Building in New York, illuminated patches of the globe went dark yesterday for Earth Hour, a campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries joined the event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to dim nonessential lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. The campaign began in Australia in 2007 and last year grew to 400 cities worldwide.

Organizers initially worried enthusiasm this year would wane with the world focused on the global economic crisis, said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley. But he said it apparently had the opposite effect.

"Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign; it's always around street parties, not street protests, it's the idea of hope, not despair. And I think that's something that's been incredibly important this year because there is so much despair around," he said.

Crowds in Time Square watched as many of the massive billboards darkened.

Mikel Rouse, 52, a composer who lives and works nearby came to watch what he called "the center of the universe" dim its lights.

Officials planned to flip a 4-foot-tall, mock light switch in Chicago, one of 10 US Earth Hour flagship cities.

The Smithsonian Castle, World Bank, National Cathedral and Howard University were among several buildings that went dark in the nation's capital.

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, lights were turned off at banks, the city's communications tower, and several government buildings, including the Presidential Palace where President Michelle Bachelet hosted Vice President Joe Biden.

The two leaders and dozens of guests dinned at candlelight.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Earth Hour "a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message: They want action on climate change."

An agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, is supposed to be reached in Copenhagen this December, and environmentalists' sense of urgency has spurred interest in this year's Earth Hour.

In Bonn, WWF activists held a candlelit cocktail party on the eve of a UN climate change meeting, the first in a series of talks leading up to Copenhagen. The goal is to get an ambitions deal to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases that scientists say are dangerously warming the planet.