The Taipei 101 building in Taiwan, currently the tallest building in the world (but not for long), turns out its lights for Earth Hour 2009.

On March 29th, people from around the world turned off lights for Earth Hour 2009. 4,085 cities and 88 countries participated in the event, which is being described as the largest demonstration of public concern about climate change in history. Check out these pictures of international cities, monuments, and landmarks before and during Earth Hour. The lights on and lights off versions of each photograph are overlaid and will alternatively morph into each other if you click the picture. It’s a cool effect that lets you identify exactly where lights were off and what kind of difference they made.

Where were you and what were you doing during Earth Hour? Did you participate? I was on a train on the way into New York City, so I not only didn’t have any [of my own] lights on, but I was also using public transportation, an earth-friendly alternative to cars (OK, it was kind of by necessity, but still…).

In 2007, 2.2 million homes and businesses in Sydney, Australia turned off their lights for one hour to show their commitment to planet earth. In 2008, the message grew into a global sustainability movement, and approximately 50 million people around the world turned off their lights for Earth Hour. This year, Earth hour, with the support of WWF, hopes to attract over 1 billion participants who will turn off their lights for one hour, from 8:30PM to 9:30PM local time, on Saturday, March 28, 2009. They’re treating it like a vote – switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, leaving them on is a vote for global warming – which I think is kind of lame, but it’s an awesome cause anyway, meant to bring attention to the green movement, sustainability, the importance of protecting our planet, etc. I’ll be participating, and you should too (sign up here). If this works, I bet it would be awesome to watch from space, like “the wave” at a football game except with a big band of darkness slowly making its way across the surface of the earth. Hopefully, they’ve got some kind of satellite up there videotaping it…

Anyway, my research brought me to Conservation International, a nonprofit organization that focuses on preserving earth’s biodiversity and natural heritage. Through innovation, campaigning, and business-like functionality and effectiveness, Conservation International aims to save species, conserve habitats, empower local communities with education, and raise awareness. They hope to demonstrate that human societies can and must live harmoniously with nature, and they help faciliate the construction of this relationship on both a local and global scale.

Of the organizations I saw, Conservation International was one of the most impressive and, it seems, effective. It’s also very cool, in terms of what they do, their website, the information they offer, the way they campaign, etc. I recommend browsing the website a bit and seeing what it’s all about. If you like what you see, or perhaps you’re just feeling particularly inspired by the approach of Earth Day (and I hope you are…), there are a number of ways to support the cause. If you’re interested in preserving tropical forests (and you should be, considering the burning of forests accounts for 20% of the world’s carbon emissions and releases more carbon than all cars, trucks, and planes, combined) , which is central to Conservation International’s conservation strategy, consider donating to the Protect an Acre campaign. This campaign gives you the opportunity to donate $15 to buy an acre of tropical forest, protecting the forest, the life it contains, and the people it supports. If you donate, you’ll even get a little recognition on the website, your name attached to a specific acre on a virtual forest grid. I’ve “bought” my acres. Consider helping out and doing the same.