You are called for turning off your power completely - no lights, no televisions, no computers, actually nothing that uses electricity - for one full hour today. Yes, today is the day to observe "Earth Hour".

Well, Earth Hour is an international event organized on the last Saturday of March every year by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund). It is the international movement against global warming that calls the people around the world, households and businesses, to switch off their inessential lights and electrical appliances for one complete hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

Earth Hour is scheduled to be observed from 8:30 to 9:30 p. m. in each time zone today i. e. Saturday, March 28. Today, millions of people around the globe are expected to switch off their electric lights and electric appliances to observe the Earth Hour.

The WWF stated that the goal of the "Earth Hour" is to convey a message to governments around the world that they should step up their efforts to fight against the global warming. According to WWF, switching off your lights toady will be a "vote against global warming," while leaving your lights on will be a "vote for global warming".

The idea of "Earth Hour" was conceived by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. The idea spread via Internet and social media, and many cities around the world observed the event in 2008. The idea has grown extremely popular today. Just one day before the event, "Earth Hour" was the top searched item on Twitter, on Friday. The 30-second video clip about "Earth Hour" on YouTube has been viewed by over 59,000 people. "Earth Hour" is hotly discussed topic among the thousands of Facebook users.

The Gland, Switzerland based organization - WWF stated that it is expecting that a billion people will observe "Earth Hour" today. In 2008, 50 million people switched off their lights at Earth Hour. The organization said that it is hoping that more than hundred cities and 829 world landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramids of Giza, will go dark for one hour. The WWF asserted that the results of "Earth Hour" will be revealed at a Global Climate Change Conference later this year.

Thus, Earth Hour is the event aimed to stop the unnecessary usage and waste of electric power that not only affects our climate but wastes a lot of our money. According to study released this week, $2.8 billion is wasted from office PCs that aren't shut off properly.