Seattle Turns Off Electricity for 'Earth Hour' Saturday Night

The city of Seattle participates in Earth Hour this Saturday, when businesses throughout the downtown area plan to go dark to draw attention to the issue of global warming.
The Seattle Sheraton Hotel will be dimming its interior lights, turning off its iconic "S" crest and exterior perimeter non-essential lighting from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and hotel guests can participate by turning off their room lights.
The hotel is also hosting a contest encouraging guests to write down one "eco-conscious" action that they will implement in 2010. Two contest winners will receive a complimentary two-night stay at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel.
Earth Hour is led by the World Wildlife Fund. More than 50 million people in 400 cities around the world took part in Earth Hour last year. The lights went out at Sydney's Opera House, Rome's Coliseum, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Even the Google homepage went dark for the day.
This year, Earth Hour will be even bigger with cities both large and small across the United States committed to the event. A few of these cities include: Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; and Seattle. They will join international cities such as Beijing, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Rome and Toronto.