Earth Hour, a worldwide grassroots movement to raise awareness of climate change, will return for its 10th edition Saturday, encouraging people to show their commitment to saving the planet by turning off the lights.

The event, organized by World Wide Fund for Nature, will see individuals, communities, households and businesses switch off nonessential lights for an hour from 8:30 p.m. Saturday. 

In 2007, Earth Hour was launched in Sydney, Australia, to send a message to people around the world that small moves, such as switching off the lights at home, can bring about a big change.

The first event involved 2.2 million citizens in Australia. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 178 countries and 7,000 cities.

This year’s Earth Hour is significant due to the soaring temperatures around the world, the WWF said.

According to NASA, 2016 was the hottest year on record, setting a new high for the third year in a row. The extreme weather means the impact of climate change is being felt sooner than expected, scientists said.

A separate report also showed that the Earth’s surface temperature has now risen about 1.1 degrees Celsius above the levels seen before the industrial revolution, when large-scale fossil fuel burning began. The Paris agreement, an international treaty on climate change reached in December 2015, aims to cap the increase to below 1.5 C.

According to the Korea Ecological Footprint Report 2016, jointly published by Global Footprint Network and World Wide Fund for Nature last year, humanity’s demands outstrip what the Earth can regenerate by 64 percent. Simply put, people are using natural resources equivalent to 1.6 times that found on Earth. And for Koreans, the amount is 3.3 times that found on the planet.

Individuals and organizations that wish to take part in Earth Hour, a worldwide demonstration of support for action on climate change, may sign up to participate at http://earthhourkorea.org.

The WWF said the first 500 participants who sign up will be given a free sticker of endangered animals. One can upload photos of participation in Earth Hour on social media with the hashtag #earthhour.

The WWF is the world’s largest institution devoted to conserving nature, with more than 5 million members in 100 different countries. The organization aims to conserve biological diversity, lead the sustainable use of renewable energy, and reduce unnecessary consumption and environmental pollution. WWF Korea was officially launched in 2014.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)