Buildings across the UAE went dark on Saturday to mark Earth Hour.
The event takes place every year on the last Saturday in March to raise awareness about the environmental issues facing the planet.
Millions of people and hundreds of businesses joined in by switching off their lights in solidarity with the Earth for 60 minutes at 8.30pm.
They included attractions at Yas Theme Parks and CLYMB Abu Dhabi on Yas Island, in addition to Al Ain Zoo, which also held online events for staff to further develop “ a culture of environmental protection”.
Elsewhere in Abu Dhabi, the Founder’s Memorial and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque joined in, among others.
The annual event is usually marked by in-person events, but the campaign has moved online for the last two years due to Covid-19.
Each year has a special focus, and for 2021 it was about how the destruction of nature raises the risk of pandemics.
Evidence suggests that Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease – one which jumped from animals to humans.
A World Wildlife Fund report, published in 2020, warned of the risk of a new zoonotic disease in the future.
It predicted that the likelihood of a disease that could be transferred from animals to humans was "higher than ever, with the potential to wreak havoc on health, economies and global security”.
Researchers in New Zealand have previously linked the emergence of Ebola, one of the world’s deadliest viruses, with the destruction of animal habitat due to deforestation in West and Central Africa.
Like Sars-Cov-2, the virus is believed to have originated in bats, which are the natural reservoir for hundreds of deadly viruses.
This included the Marburg virus and Nipah viruses, which have caused outbreaks in Africa and India.
On Monday, thousands of people across the GCC pledged their support to the Water Hour campaign on this year’s World Water Day.
They promised to conserve water with a few small changes to daily life.
These included pledging to wash dishes in a dishwasher rather than by hand, turning off the water when brushing their teeth and fixing all leaky faucets and showers.
Cities around the world go dark - in pictures
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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