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Earth Hour tomorrow night

The City of Williams Lake and B.C. Hydro are encouraging residents to decrease their energy needs for Earth Hour on Saturday, March 26 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The City of Williams Lake and B.C. Hydro are encouraging residents to decrease their energy needs for Earth Hour on Saturday, March 26 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Earth Hour is an annual global event hosted by the World Wildlife Federation and supported provincially by B.C. Hydro.

The goal of the event is to encourage individuals to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics in an effort to conserve power and in doing so, demonstrate support for the fight against climate change.

“British Columbia is a leader in North America in conservation, and Earth Hour provides the perfect opportunity for all of us to make one concerted action at the same time to showcase our leadership,” said Rich Coleman, minister of energy and mines. “It’s simple, individual actions like this that can help us achieve our target of meeting two-thirds of our electricity needs through efficiency and conservation by 2020.”

This is the fourth year that BC Hydro has supported Earth Hour. Last year, the province’s electricity load dropped by 1.04 per cent or 64.6 megawatt hours of electricity, the equivalent of turning off about 1.4 million lights, during Earth Hour. In Williams Lake electricity consumption dropped by 2.2 per cent. The highest drop was in Burns Lake at seven per cent.

According to B.C. Hydro, if British Columbians implemented the same conservation measures just one hour every evening, the combined savings would be enough to power close to 2,200 homes for a year.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Aust. as a one-city initiative in 2007 and has grown to become a global phenomenon. In 2010, Earth Hour reached more than 1.3 billion people in 128 countries and territories. More than 10 million Canadians participated in more about 300 cities and towns.

British Columbians can pledge their support for Earth Hour at www.EarthHourCanada.org.