Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
On March twenty-seventh at eight thirty at night,
all the lights
were shut off at the Tokyo Tower
in Japan. The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany
went dark. So did the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
The Empire State Building in New York City shut off
all its lights. So did buildings in other cities
around the world. The lights stayed off for one hour
for an event called Earth Hour. The observance was
organized by a conservation group, the World Wide
Fund for Nature, also known as the World Wildlife
Fund.
For the fourth year, people were urged to turn off
their lights for one hour to call attention to the
issue of climate change. The group says climate
change is one of the greatest threats facing
wildlife
and nature. The first Earth Hour was held in two
thousand seven in Sydney, Australia. Organizers said
more than two thousand businesses and two million
people took part.
Since then, Earth Hour has grown into an
international event.
People in more than four thousand cities in
eighty-eight countries took part last year.
Organizers said more than one hundred countries and
territories promised their official support this
year. This was the first Earth Hour for countries
including Kuwait, Qatar, Kosovo, Madagascar, Nepal,
Cambodia
and Panama. At least nineteen
of the fifty American states took part in the two
thousand ten
Earth Hour observance. The event organizers said
that one of the last states to join was Missouri.
Governor Jay Nixon shut off the lights in the dome
of the state capitol building. He said when it comes
to saving energy and money, big changes start with
small steps like turning out the lights.
Did you turn off your lights to observe Earth Hour?
Do you think about what the organizers call your
"environmental footprint," and try to reduce harmful
effects?
Is climate change a concern for you?
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VOA Special English Development Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
