Lights out! Landmarks go dark for Earth Hour Saturday night

CBS News Los Angeles Live

Get the candles ready, from 8:30 to 9:30 Saturday night, it's lights out for Earth Hour.

The annual designated hour of darkness is a worldwide celebration of the planet, where people are asked to turn off any non-essential lights for 60 minutes.

Landmarks around the world are participating, including the famed Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier.

The Ferris wheel in Pacific Park joins other iconic buildings and landmarks including the Space Needle in Seattle, the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Big Ben in London.

Earth Hour was started in 2007 by World Wide Fund for Nature as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney, Australia. It's the largest grassroots movement for the environment.

It's held every year, usually on the last Saturday in March, with supporters in more than 190 countries and territories.

While worldwide landmarks go dark, supporters of the movement worldwide are urged to "symbolically switch off and give an hour for Earth, spending 60 minutes doing something, anything, positive for our planet," organizers said.

"More people than ever need to join this year's Earth Hour to leverage the collective power of individuals and communities," Kirsten Schuijt, director general of WWF International, said in a statement. 

"It's crucial to get involved, if we want to raise awareness about the environmental challenges and bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030."

Santa Monica's Ferris wheel Earth Hour celebration can be viewed online at  https://www.pacpark.com/live