Earth Hour 2011 goes beyond an hour of darkness March 26

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 131 countries and territories and thousands of cities on all seven continents have pledged to participate in Earth Hour 2011 tomorrow. The hour-long, lights-out event begins on Saturday, March 26, at 8:30 p.m. PDT.

In addition to turning lights out for an hour, people across the world are asked to pledge to take action to slow climate change. Friends of Trees encourages you to add your pledge of action—to plant trees and/or take other steps to sustain the future of our planet—to Earth Hour’s Beyond the Hour web page.

WWF describes tomorrow’s event this way:

Iconic landmarks across the globe will go dark for Earth Hour. Starting with the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand and moving to the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the lights out campaign will then sweep across Asia and the Middle East to darken landmarks and events in China, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Queen’s Palace in Madagascar, Table Mountain in South Africa, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the London Eye have also signed up to switch off in support of the planet.

Major landmarks in North and South America—including Niagara Falls in Canada, Times Square in New York City, the Obelisk in Argentina, and the world heritage site Presidential Palace in Peru—will also take part in the global plunge into darkness on March 26 for Earth Hour.

You can act on your Earth Hour pledge tomorrow and turn your lights out from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Join us Saturday morning in Portland’s Concordia and Vernon neighborhoods or in Vancouver’s Burton Ridge, Fircrest, Marrion, Oakbrook, and Ogden neighborhoods. Or help us plant 25 big trees at Eisenhower School Park in Hazel Dell, Vancouver, or restore a natural area site through our Green Space Initiative program in Durham City Park.

Tomorrow’s Neighborhood Trees events are the last of the 2010-11 planting season, wrapping up a successful first year of our Plant It Portland! campaign.

The Concordia and Vernon planting is sponsored by NW Natural in partnership with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, and the Vancouver plantings are in partnership with Vancouver Urban Forestry. Our planting partners for the Durham City Park event include Metro, Tualatin Watershed’s Clean Water Services, and the City of Durham.

–TR