Is Toronto in the dark when it comes to Earth Hour?

Millions of people from 134 countries — from Delhi, India to Heidelberg, Germany — switched off their lights and televisions for the fifth annual Earth Hour on Saturday night to show their support for action on climate change.

But Toronto only saw a 5 per cent power drop during the event — half of the reduction achieved during Earth Hour in 2010.

The year before that, the city had a 15 per cent drop in megawatts being used.

“Honestly we still think it’s successful, we think it’s a great program,” said Jennifer Link, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, who added that cool temperatures likely had many people using more heat than this time last year.

Parts of Toronto went dark from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night, but spectators at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square said they were disappointed to see many stores stay brightly lit.

Toronto first participated in 2008, a year after the World Wildlife Fund kicked off the event in Australia.

“We are really proud to be the lead city in Canada fighting to save the environment and in supporting Earth Hour,” said then-mayor David Miller at the time.

On Saturday, the Star sought out prominent leaders and landmarks city-wide to see if they were setting an example. The results were disappointing.

Some experts say the novelty of the event has worn off. But the WWF, which runs Earth Hour, says more countries and municipalities are participating than ever before.

Darkness drifted across the globe, following the sun, in a symbolic and united effort to conserve energy and combat climate change.

Recently, Toronto ranked second on the WWF’s list of Canadian cities taking concrete action to become sustainable. (Vancouver ranked first.)

But on Saturday, Hogtown was out-dimmed by cities around the world.

Emerging economies of the globe saw a rise in participation in this year’s Earth Hour, “an encouraging sign as these countries begin to take an increasingly prominent place on the world stage,” said WWF International Director General Jim Leape, who was present at India’s official switch-off event at India Gate in New Delhi. Earth Hour in India has nearly doubled from last year.

In Chengdu, China, the symbolic hour will be followed by an initiative that plans to provide 60,000 low-cost rental bicycles at 1000 rental points across the sprawling city.

For their second Earth Hour, over 5,000 Mongolians braved minus-5 degree weather, gathering around a candlelit Earth Hour logo in the main square of capital, Ulaanbaatar. And in Singapore, more than 3,000 people took part in a “Walk in the Dark” which circled the famed Marina Bay.

When the WWF launched Earth Hour in Sydney, Australia, more than 2.2 million people and 2,000 businesses participated.

One year later, 50 million people took part. By 2010, it was hundreds of millions. The great pyramids of Egypt, The Acropolis in Athens and the Eiffel Tower in Paris all went dark.

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The Star has pledged to lead by example. An official gold sponsor of Earth Hour, we are working hard to reduce our carbon footprint. The installation of high-bay LED fixtures at our Vaughan Press Centre resulted in more than a 75 per cent drop in electricity consumption. Renovations at our One Yonge St. office have reduced utility costs as we continue to streamline excess equipment.

The 5 per cent power reduction equals a drop of about 115 megawatts for the one hour period – the equivalent of about 35,000 homes or 12 skyscrapers going off the grid.

With files from Star wire services

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