Switch off for Earth Hour

8.30pm on Saturday 27th March sees the start of Earth Hour, when we are all urged to switch off unnecessary lights for an hour in support of resource conservation. Iconic buildings like the Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House and the Las Vegas Strip will go dark for an hour at 8.30pm local time. Seems like the perfect opportunity for a candlelit dinner.

Or why not go one further and switch off the TV, PC and gaming consoles too and play good old-fashioned board games or cards?

The WWF is encouraging participants to record their contribution by uploading photos to Flickr, videos to YouTube and tweeting with the hashtag #earthhour. You can find details of how to get involved here.

Climate Savers Computing is encouraging all its members to set their computer's power management settings to a more frugal setting for Earth Hour - a timely reminder that if you work in an office it's likely to be unoccupied for at least 70% of the time. Turning off computers and other office machines out of hours could reduce your energy bill as well as your carbon footprint, so reach for that off switch before you go home this weekend.