The Colosseum in Rome, the Red Square in Moscow, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Palace of Westminster and the illuminated signs of Piccadilly Circus in London or the three floors of the Eiffel Tower in Paris were successively plunged into darkness , even if curfew requires, very few were able to benefit from it.
Antoni Gaudi's famous Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, and the Schönbrunn Imperial Palace in Vienna are also among the many sites, monuments and buildings that went out between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. local time, across time zones.
Following the sun, the monuments of America then extinguished their fires, from the obelisk in central Buenos Aires to the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro via the BBVA skyscraper in Mexico City.
This annual mobilization (“Heure de la Planète” in French), organized by WWF, is intended to call for action on climate change and the environment.
This year, the organizers wanted to highlight the link between the destruction of nature and the increasing incidence of diseases like Covid-19.
“Whether it's the decline of pollinators, dwindling numbers of fish in oceans and rivers, the disappearance of forests or the more general loss of biodiversity, the evidence is mounting that nature is in free fall, "said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF, which has been organizing Earth Hour since 2007." Protecting nature is our moral responsibility, but losing it also increases our vulnerability to pandemics, accelerates climate change and threatens our food security, ”he added.