Lights in more than 100 buildings and landmarks will be turned off for an hour tomorrow in observance of “Earth Hour,” a global event that aims to raise awareness of the need to address the problem of climate change.
The event was first launched in Australia in 2007, when millions of residents in Sydney volunteered to switch off non-essential lights for an hour.
Since then, an increasing number of countries observe Earth Hour, which takes place on the last Saturday of March between 8:30pm and 9:30pm each year.
Taiwan started observing Earth Hour in 2010.
According to the Society of Wilderness, which helps organize the event in Taiwan, 2.2 billion people in 135 countries are scheduled to observe Earth Hour this year.
Society of Wilderness president Lai Jung-hsiao (賴榮孝) said the -society aimed to encourage more local residents and organizations to join the event tomorrow.
“We hope that we can have a million residents, a hundred corporations and a hundred buildings in Taiwan participate in the event,” Lai said.
“We have invited celebrities to lead the countdown to the event. On March 1, we had [Acer Inc founder] Stan Shih (施振榮). Tomorrow, it will be President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九),” Lai said.
“We hope to spread the message through social media sites and meet our goal this year,” Lai said.
Lai said more than 100 local organizations have signed up to participate.
Non-essential lights at several landmarks around the country, including the Presidential Office and Taipei 101 in Taipei, as well as the Liouhe Night Market and E-Da Theme Park in Greater Kao-hsiung, will turned off for an hour tomorrow.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS