Global: Switching off the lights for a sustainable world · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Brazil's most famous landmark, the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Hill, had its lights switched off overlooking a much darker than usual Rio de Janeiro city last Saturday. About 100 other Brazilian cities also switched the lights off from 20:30 to 21:30 during Earth Hour. It was the first time that the country has taken part in the global movement to show support for  a more sustainable world.
Like Brunei and many other countries, Brazil joined Earth Hour for the first time. Reactions ranged from optimistic and supportive to critical and cynical posts. Guilherme Nascimento Valadares, from Papo de Homem [pt] blog, spent some time monitoring reactions on Twitter and counted over 8,000 posts related to relevant tags between 20:45 on Saturday 29 and 6:00 am on Sunday 30th. He concludes:
Fato peculiar. O mais críticos eram justamente os mais conectados, jovens, hypes, espertos. Me corrijam se estiver errado, mas tenho uma forte impressão de que o retrato da juventude produtiva brasileira de hoje – estou falando da turma que saiu da faculdade e já faz o seu $$$ – é um tremendo bundão, cético, hedonista, indolente, inseguro, maria-vai-com-as-outras.
Of those who turned the lights off, many Flickr users took pictures to pass the time. See below a selection of photos uploaded under Creative Commons licenses from Brazil, India, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore and Chile:
“Transmitindo a Hora do Planeta ao vivo pelo Ustream.”
Earth Hour in Bangalore, India – Photo by Earth Hour Global. For a local blogger who reminds us that the country faces a chronic power shortage on a daily basis, observing Earth Hour was a symbol of foolishness. View of My World says:
Bangalore, and large parts of India, have been observing earth hour / earth day / earth night for many many years now. Even this morning there was no power supply to my home between 9 AM – 11 AM.
“Nós participamos!!
E aproveitamos pra namorar a luz de velas!! rs”
Earth Hour was both disappointing and pointless in Sydney. They didn't even turn the lights off on the Opera House or Bridge really… just a few lights were shut down. I can't imagine they really saved that much power.