EARTH HOUR - an update
Here is the latest update on WWF's Earth Hour - the statistics are still coming in, but here is the news to date:
4088 cities and towns in more than 88 countries took part in WWF's Earth Hour 2009. 70 national capitals participated, including nine of the ten most populated metropolises on the planet. Global landmarks that ‘switched off’ included the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Empire State Building, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Birdcage Stadium in China, the Acropolis in Greece, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Coliseum in Rome.
In the UK over 1400 schools took part (around half a million young people) - many also celebrated Earth Hour the week before with special assemblies. 100 Local Authorities signed up, and cities and towns all over the UK turned out lights and held special events. Landmarks that 'switched off' included Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Nelson's Column, the National Gallery and Wembley Stadium Arch in London; the Senedd and Millennium Stadium in Cardiff; Quayside landmarks in Newcastle and Gateshead; Stormont, City Hall and the Wheel in Belfast, the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol and Edinburgh Castle.
Nearly 700 businesses signed up to switch off. Those that actively involved their businesses, staff and customers included Coca-Cola and McDonald's who also turned off their famous light signage at Piccadilly Circus; HSBC; MBNA; O2; IKEA and Tesco, who encouraged customers and staff to take part. In addition the CBI and the Bodyshop helped spread the word around the UK. Over 800,000 corporate employees and millions of members of the public heard about Earth Hour via this fantastic support.
Media coverage of WWF's Earth Hour ranged from regional radio promotions, interviews and news - including a special Earth Hour programme with Magic FM - which included a survey of who the public would most like to have a candle-light dinner with, Johnny Depp or Cheryl Cole! As well as advance publicity, Earth Hour was covered in almost every national newspaper over the weekend, including a three-day promotion in the Daily Telegraph (with Carluccio's), a double-page picture spread in the Independent on Sunday, and extensive coverage in The News of the World, which has some eight million readers. There was widespread national and regional radio and television coverage, including the BBC, Channel 4, ITN and Sky.
In the online world, more than ten times the usual number of people visited our website, there were one million views of Earth Hour photos on Flickr, one million members of Facebook took part, and two percent of all traffic on Twitter was about Earth Hour.
The latest news, photos and film coverage can be found at www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour
Huge thanks once again for being a part of WWF's Earth Hour 2009
