Cyprus marks Earth Hour

THE GOVERNMENT, along with those in 579 other cities around the world, will celebrate Earth Hour between 8pm and 9pm tonight by switching off the lights at the Presidential Palace.

Earth Hour is a global event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature asking households and businesses to shut off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to conserve energy and raise awareness about climate change.

“On March 27, 2010 we will extinguish the lights, uniting our voice with thousands of people across the land, sharing the same concern for the salvation of our planet,” read a statement on the Green Party’s web site.

The Green Party is coordinating celebratory events throughout the island in cooperation with the Pedagogical Institute, the Youth Green Party, the Ecological Movement of Cyprus, Côte and others. One such event will be the “Feast for the Earth,” to be held at 12pm today outside Nicosia Town Hall. The event will feature paintings, music and gifts.

Larnaca municipality announced it will also participate in Earth Hour with the “aim of protecting the planet from global warming,” calling on its residents to “do the same at home to send the message that together we can tackle climate change and save our planet.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.