Hts the way
“Earth Hour is more about awareness, but we’re certainly happy that some people stepped up to the plate and turned off their lights,” she said.
Saturday night’s reduced power load, which represented about 193 megawatts, is the equivalent of about 128,000 homes, Bruckmueller said.
While the majority of lights continued to shine across the city throughout the hour, not all Torontonians were in the dark about the event.
Various lights-out celebrations were planned in Toronto, including at the Distillery District, where World Wildlife Fund Canada hosted an outdoor party.
Eco-conscious revellers lit candles, swayed and sang along in the district’s square for the official performance Team Earth Hour Anthem, a newly-penned song comprising lyrics submitted by Canadians on Facebook. Moments before the countdown to lights-out, 10-year-old Isabella Spensieri declared her high hopes for the evening.
“I’m here to save the world,” she said shyly, swaying to the music.
“We wanted to come down here, be- cause when you’re at home, you don’t really feel it.
“You’re just at home with the lights out,” said Mary-kay Spensieri.
Around the city, the CN Tower went dark by turning off all its exterior lights.
While some business logos on highrise towers and hotels went dark.
Other Canadian landmarks expected to power down included Niagara Falls, the Montreal Cross and the Parliament Buildings.
Toronto was the first Canadian city to announce its participation in the event, signing on in 2008 — one year after the World Wildlife Fund kicked off the event in Australia.
Since then, participation has grown yearly, with 2012 seeing more countries take part than ever.
Among the first-timers participating was Libya, where a teenager organized participation for the country, according to the WWF.
There’s no way to measure exactly how much energy is saved globally, Earth Hour organizers say, but the aim is to show leaders that global warming is a worldwide concern. With files from the Star’s wire services