Cities Across Canada Join Earth Hour

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 12, 2008) - Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and more than a dozen other municipalities in Ontario have signed on to participate in WWF's global lights out event, Earth Hour. These cities have committed to turning off their lights for one hour at 8 p.m. on March 29, and will encourage residents and businesses within the city to participate and show support for action on climate change.

Municipalities in Ontario that have joined include Oakville, Vaughan, Brampton, Sarnia, Halton Hills, Whitby, Mississauga, and London - with dozens more interested. These Canadian cities are in addition to more than 15 major cities around the world that already joined, including Sydney, Chicago, Copenhagen and Dublin.

Last year, Earth Hour made its successful debut in Sydney, Australia. More than 2 million individuals and businesses participated, resulting in a 10 per cent reduction on the electrical grid and saving 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

This year, Toronto was the first city to sign-on to WWF's Earth Hour. WWF-Canada's official partners for Earth Hour Toronto are the Toronto Star, Virgin Mobile and the City of Toronto. Individuals can sign-up and find out more information at wwf.ca/EarthHour.

Turning off your lights for one hour will help create awareness and build momentum, but Earth Hour won't stop the climate crisis on its own. To help ensure that Canadians make long-term changes beyond Earth Hour, WWF-Canada has created The Good Life.

The Good Life is an online, action-oriented campaign to enable and encourage Canadians to make changes in their everyday lives to reduce their environmental footprint. This includes a range of actions from easy (like switching to CFL light bulbs) to more complicated (installing an energy efficient furnace) - something for everyone who wants a greener lifestyle.

In less than month since WWF-Canada launched The Good Life, participants have reduced over 5,000,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the equivalent of taking more than 800 cars off the road. This in turn will show our business and political leaders that Canadians are serious about demanding urgent action to fight climate change. For more information visit wwf.ca.