VOTE EARTH FOR EARTH HOUR 2009

Dear All,

We are about to enter the final month before Earth Hour. We set ourselves some very ambitious targets for Earth Hour 09 hoping to reach 1 billion people and have 1000 cities and towns taking part. With the overall aim to create a global mandate for action on climate change in the year of the Copenhagen negotiations.

With four weeks to go, thanks to the inspiring efforts of WWF staff and our partner organisations around the world, Earth Hour will be happening in more 78 countries and hopefully by the end of the week 700 cities and towns.

Last week - we know that every 20 seconds someone viewed the Earth Hour video on youtube, and approximately every 7 seconds someone mentioned "Earth Hour" on the web.

You can view our latest PSA below featuring music by Coldplay, artwork by President Obama's campaign artist Shepard Fairey and voiceover by Cate Blanchett on our EH youtube.com site.

http://www.youtube.com/user/earthhour2009

If 2009 is anything like 2007 and 2008 - the last four weeks will see a massive increase in interest in Earth Hour. Though we expect, with a campaign on this scale, there will be inevitable challenges as we head towards 8.30pm, 28th March and beyond. However with the fantastic efforts and support across the network - we look forward to an amazing night in March.
Finally the team in South Africa asked Nobel Peace Prize winning, Archbishop Desmond Tutu to become a global ambassador for Earth Hour - he said the following words

"The threat of climate change is the greatest human induced crisis facing the world today. It is totally indiscriminate of race, culture and religion. It affects every human being on the planet.

Earth Hour is an opportunity for every man, woman and child from all corners of the globe to come together with a united voice and make a loud and powerful statement on the issue of climate change.

If we all perform this one simple act together, it will send a message to our governments too powerful for them to ignore. They will know the eyes of the world are watching. he said.

Best regards,

Andy



Andy Ridley
Executive Director
Earth Hour Global
WWF
Sydney
Australia