Earth Hour is an initiative started by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund) that asks people everywhere in the world to turn off the light and other unnecessary household appliances for one hour, to raise awareness towards the need to tackle global warming and other environmental problems.

The “grandfather” was an idea born in Thailand that was executed with a whole lot of success and in 2009, it’s estimated that 1 billion people will vote (by vote I mean turning off the light). So here’s what you have to do.

In the last Saturday of March (that’s 28 March, tomorrow as I’m writing this) no matter where you’re from, at local time 20:30, turn off your light and whatever appliances you can for at least an hour. After that, as a bonus if you wish, make a picture of the building you live in, or some picture that shows turned off lights, or make a video, or twitter it and help the cause even more. We need to take action on global warming, and your vote is more important than ever; vote for Earth hour 2009. Vote for Earth.

Enjoyed this article? Join 40,000+ subscribers to the ZME Science newsletter. Subscribe now!