Earth Hour

For one hour the Colosseum in Rome, the Bird's Nest stadium in China, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building and many other of the world's landmarks will go dark. Earth Hour, organized by the World Wildlife Fund, begins tonight at 8:30 p.m. Thousands of cities around the world have turned their lights out for one hour, 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. local time rolling through the world's time zones starting with Sydney, Austrailia. The event is a symbolic one signaling a commitment to address global warming. The event began in 2007 in Sydney. In the U.S., key cities are Nashville, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, D.C., Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. And there is a long list of participating cities in the U.S. Visit the WWF website to read about Earth Hour and see the global and U.S. maps of key cities and participating cities:http://www.earthhourus.org/map.php

Memphis is not officially participating. A local environmentalist asked the city to participate by turning off the lights on the Hernando Desoto bridge for Earth Hour but a spokesperson for the Mayor's office said it would present safety issues.