Last year, 50 million people around the world, throughout 35 countries and over 370 cities turned off their lights for one hour; in Canada, 10 million participated.

Earth Hour 2009, a global WWF climate change initiative, represents a significant increase in global participation: in numbers released today by organizers, over 2,800 cities in 83 countries “will switch off their lights for Earth Hour in a moment of global solidarity.”  Over 800 global landmarks — including the Great Pyramids of Giza, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, the Gaudi Building in Barcelona, Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and Toronto’s CN Tower — will participate by turning out their lights.

CBC Newsworld began their two-day Earth Hour coverage on Friday, which will culminate with an 8 pm prime time special program hosted by Diana Swain in Toronto and Ian Hanomansing in Vancouver.

It’s not too late — you can sign up at the official Earth Hour 2009 website by clicking here, and then share your participation with the world.  Organizers have the social media world covered; so, until the clock strikes 8:30 pm wherever you live, you can check out how others are documenting their commitment by visiting the Earth Hour Global’s photostream on flickr or the official Earth Hour You Tube and 12seconds.tv channels.  And, if you’re on Twitter, you can update your feed with #earthhour or #voteearth and your #location tags.

Finally, if you’re interested in attending one of the hundreds of related community events, you can go to  www.EarthHour.org, choose your country at the top of the site, then click the “Find Events” link. Have a great night, all.