EARTH Hour was observed by millions yesterday as landmarks around the world went dark for an hour.   

Kota Kinabalu joined Kuala Lumpur’s famed Petronas Twin towers, the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, and the harbour bridge and opera house in Australia.

Earth Hour started in Australia in 2007 is observed by millions of people in 187 countries.

The campaign calls for everyone to turn off their lights at 8.30pm local time in what organisers describe as the world’s “largest grassroots movement for climate change”.

“It aims to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment and wildlife,” Earth Hour organiser WWF Australia chief Dermot O’Gorman told AFP.

O’Gorman said this year’s theme was the impact of climate change on biodiversity and plant and animal species.

“More than half of plant and animal species face local extinction in some of the world’s most naturally rich areas in biodiversity by the turn of this century if we continue along the current path that we are trending in terms of global warming,” he said.

Species at risk include Australia’s green turtles, black-flanked rock wallabies and koalas, as well as the Adelie penguin colonies in Antarctica, the conservation group said in a report it commissioned that was published in the science journal Climatic Change.

A study released last week said key biodiverse sites around the world are projected to be most affected by localised extinction, include the Amazon, the plant’s largest tropical rainforest, and southern Africa’s Miombo Woodlands.

While the lights-off event is a symbolic gesture, Earth Hour has led successful campaigns over the past decade to ban plastics in the Galapagos Islands and plant 17 million trees in Kazakhstan.

In Kota Kinabalu,  lights at the City Hall building were switched off as 200 people took part in the Earth Hour Bike Ride.  

Sabah Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Edward Yong told local papers that pollution, indiscriminate forest clearing have resulted in the imbalances in the environment and ecosystem.

He said this is the cause for the numerous natural disasters such as floods, landslides and dry spells in the country.

“A clean environment is important to ensure the welfare of our community is maintained,” he said.  – March 25, 2018.