Earth Hour starts at 8:30 pm Saturday night wherever you are: turn off your lights and celebrate.

Once a year, for one hour, millions of human beings come together for dinner parties or get solitary for a candlelit bath and remember what it’s like to live without sucking energy out of our earth and sky. Our hunger for energy, as a worldwide civilization, is such that we’re willing to rape our earth and murder one another for oil or natural gas.

But: solar and wind and geothermal—and reducing one’s impact—are here, and now. They’re infinitely renewable. They’re clean. And they create domestic jobs, something we all can love.

And: “Earth Hour is the largest mass participation event in the world’s history. Ever.”

Wow. If you think about it, it’s true. So even as human beings seem to dark and selfish, inspiration and open heart happens.

“It’s not about what country you’re from—it’s about what Planet you’re from.”

Check before/after photos of cities and skyscapes here.

And 2011 videos here.