Vancouver leads Canada as Earth Hour 'capital'
Canadians will join millions worldwide in marking Earth Hour at 8:30 p.m. in local time zones
The City of Vancouver beat out 66 other cities around the world for the title of Global Earth Hour Capital in a challenged issued by the World Wildlife Fund.
The WWFund, which is the driving force behind Earth Hour, said it bestowed the 'capital' honour on Vancouver in recognition of the city's efforts to reduce pollution that causes climate change.
The city also received the highest number of online votes in a People's Choice ballot, and the city's government passed an official "Earth Hour 2013" proclamation.
About 13-million Canadians turned off their lights for an hour last year in the symbolic event aimed at drawing awareness to climate change.
It's unclear how many Canadians will join the seventh edition of Earth Hour; however, Earth Hour is embraced by hundreds of Canadian municipalities and many utilities have Earth Hour sections posted on their websites.
BC Hydro, for example, has a way for many of its customers to compare their electricity use during Earth Hour with their normal power usage. It said the B.C. community that saved the biggest relative percentage of electricity during Earth Hour 2012 was Revelstoke, which cutback on an estimated 12 megawatt hours of electricity, or around 12 per cent of its usual load.
Steven Price, a conservation director with the World Wildlife Fund, says municipalities are a driving force behind Earth Hour.
"Now if we could get the provinces, territories and federal government more interested, we'll be getting somewhere. And Earth Hour is meant to send a message, even if it's 'a dark one' to them."
His hope may not be so far away.
Provincial governments get involved
B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake posted a message on BC Hydro's website urging all residents in the province to power down tonight to show their concern for the global environment.
New Brunswick Environment Minister Bruce Fitch posted a similar message on the website of NB Power.
"This is an important initiative that highlights ways that we can impact our energy consumption and lessen our environmental footprint," Fitch said in a statement.
Price said the challenges of dealing with climate change can be enormous and can seem overwhelming, but we shouldn't underestimate the difference Canadians can make.
"One way to start doing that is have a moment when you turn the lights out and say 'I'm starting right now and I'm sending a message to my family but also to my government representatives and I'm going to re-examine how I use fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — in my household,'" he said
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the UN headquarters in New York City will join more than 7,000 cities and towns in more than 150 countries and territories for Earth Hour.
"We participate with an undimmed determination to take action on climate change," he said.
With files from CBC News