SLOVAKIA was one of dozens of countries worldwide to participate in the Earth Hour initiative aimed at highlighting environmental protection and measures for saving power and energy consumption. In 2012, 152 countries participated, including Slovakia and its more than 60 towns and villages.
Also this year several Slovak cities and venues took part in the symbolic gesture on March 23 at 20:30 of turning off the lights. “Switching off the lights is symbolic: every one of us has to become aware that the planet Earth is extremely important for us, and that we have to respect and protect it,” coordinator of the event in Slovakia, Jaroslav Merc, told the TASR newswire. Thus, alongside metropolises like New York or Toronto, and monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Giza pyramids, Slovak towns like Trenčín, Poprad, Michalovce, Bánovce nad Bebravou and many others took part in the Earth Hour, as well as sites like Bojnice Castle, Spiš Castle and Stará Ľubovňa. Various other institutions, offices and companies also participated; the Environment Ministry, for example, switched off its building’s heat over the weekend.
The event, organised by the World Wildlife Fund, was launched in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, and has since achieved global importance, with Earth Hour being probably the biggest worldwide event involving the public: annually, it connects more than a billion people all over the world in more than 6,000 municipalities, including both the private and the public sectors, TASR wrote.
