TORONTO - Toronto's twinkling lights were extinguished for one hour Saturday evening, as the city participated in the annual Earth Hour event.

Residents and businesses across the city pledged to turn off their lights from 8:30 to 9:30 pm, in order to raise awareness and take a stance against climate change.

The event began in 2007 in Sydney Australia, with 2.2 million individuals and over 2,000 businesses turning off their lights to conserve energy. Three years later, 1.3 billion individuals across the globe participated in the event, with 128 countries taking part. About 10 million Canadians in over 300 cities and towns participated last year.

Dr. Harry McCaughey, a climate change expert at Queen's University, says conserving the environment shouldn't be taken lightly.

"Earth Hour is another way average people can look around and say hey, this is serious," he told ctvtoronto.ca.

Last year, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator reported that the consumption of energy on Earth Day fell by four per cent, compared to a typical Saturday. The drop represented 560 megawatts (MW) of power, or the amount of energy a city the size of Brampton typically uses.

Dr. McCaughey says the event is really about awareness and getting people to think about how we create and use energy.

"The overuse of energy and of fossil-based energy is an important driver of climate change," he said. "It's one of the things that I think that gets sidetracked in terms of policy development. We talk, but we never do anything about it."

The City of Toronto will be participated by switching off all non-essential lights at City Hall and various other facilities.

To see an interactive map of Toronto's Earth Hour event locations and which businesses have pledged to turn off their lights, click here: http://wwf.ca/earthhour/  

Event Locations include:

  • The ROM
  • Science Centre
  • High Park
  • Fairmont Royal York
  • Church of the Holy Trinity
  • Chapters (Queensway location)
  • The Big Stretch Yoga Centre
  • Kortright Centre For Conservation

Over 200,000 Canadians pledged to participate on the World Wildlife Fund's website.