The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research participated in the symbolic global campaign "Earth Hour", which was launched by the World Wide Fund for Nature to combat global warming around the world. The lights were switched off for one hour from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM, on Saturday, 28th of March.
The Ministry organized an internal awareness campaign for its staff, and an external one through its website and social networking pages, to raise awareness of the purpose of this Hour, which is an annual event in which the World Wide Fund For Nature calls on individuals and businesses to turn off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances for one hour, to increase their level of awareness of the need to take action to address the climate change and carbon emissions that scientists consider the main cause of global warming. The Ministry will also conduct a survey of staff opinions after the campaign to measure the extent of benefit from the information provided by the campaign on energy, carbon emissions, and climate change issues. The date set for the "Earth Hour" campaign, March 28th, 2015, is close to the date of the vernal equinox, in order to ensure that most of the cities in the world are surrounded by darkness at 8:30 PM, as the Earth Hour moves across time zones respectively. The campaign has achieved high records in 2014, as more than 162 countries participated, also the most famous landmarks in the world turned off their lights, such as Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Wall of China, the Tower of Pisa in Italy, and the Empire State Building in New York. The Red Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, also joined the list for the first time in 2014.
At the State level, all the seven Emirates participated in the Earth Hour, with the participation of major landmarks that turned off their lights, such as Burj Al Arab, the Raffles Hotel, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Etihad Towers, and Al Qasba (Eye of the Emirates).
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