LOS ANGELES—City Hall will go dark Saturday evening, joining iconic buildings and landmarks in Southern California and around the world in recognition of “Earth Hour,” an annual exercise to raise awareness of climate change.
At 9:30 p.m. Saturday, following the “lights off” hour, City Hall will be lit green.
“As we continue to build a greener Los Angeles, we are proud that City Hall will join landmarks and buildings in Los Angeles and across the globe as they shut off their lights for one hour,” said Mayor Karen Bass.
In addition to City Hall observing Earth Hour, other city buildings and famous landmarks across Los Angeles will participate in the global observation of Earth Hour. Los Angeles International Airport will temporarily turn off its iconic gateway pylons. The pylons, which line 1 1/2 miles of Century Boulevard and ring the entrance to LAX, will be lit green before going dark. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s John Ferraro Building will also be shutting off all nonessential lighting during Earth Hour, according to Ms. Bass’s office.
In Santa Monica, the famed Ferris wheel at Santa Monica’s Pacific Park will turn off its lights for the event—except for the rim safety lighting. It will join landmarks worldwide including Paris’s Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, and London’s Big Ben.
Earth Hour was started in 2007 by the World Wide Fund for Nature as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney. It’s held every year on the last Saturday of March, with supporters in more than 190 countries and territories.
While worldwide landmarks go dark, supporters of the movement worldwide are urged to “symbolically switch off and ‘give an hour for Earth,’ spending 60 minutes doing something—anything—positive for our planet,” organizers said.
Ahead of Earth Day, the Bureau of Street Lighting placed an order for an additional 150 electric vehicle chargers and will begin installation of them in April, targeting many areas of Los Angeles that lack sufficient electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with a target date at the end of July. The 150 chargers are in addition to the more than 700 streetlight chargers already installed throughout the city.
Last week, Ms. Bass signed a first-of-its-kind Letter of Intent with the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland Ville Tavio to promote climate cooperation and economic development between the city of Los Angeles and Finland, and later hosted U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan at the Port of Los Angeles to highlight upcoming federal investments in zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure, air quality projects, and enhanced efforts to protect the health of communities near U.S. ports.
