Residents in towns and cities around the world are preparing to turn out the lights for an hour, to highlight the threat of climate change.

“Earth Hour” begins in Sydney, Australia, at 2000 (0900GMT), when lights on landmarks such as the Opera House and Harbour Bridge will go out. Other participants around the world will follow suit when clocks reach 2000 local time on Saturday. Bangkok, London and Chicago are among the cities that have signed up. The initiative, first held in Sydney last year, has now been taken up by more than 35 countries.

Earth Hour is an interesting concept and the way it spreads shows that the climate change makes people care and act. I just hope their actions not are limited to just this one hour of the year.

In September 2000, the largest-ever gathering of world leaders ushered in the new millennium by adopting the Millennium Declaration. The Declaration, endorsed by 189 countries, was then translated into a roadmap setting out goals to be reached by 2015.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) build on agreements made at United Nations conferences in the 1990s and represent commitments by all countries to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.

The Hunger Project uses low-cost, people-centered strategies for the sustainable end of hunger. I recently was at meetings were two persons from Bangladesh talked about how The Hunger Project works there. The country manager, professor Badiul Alam Majumdar, gave a more theoretical talk about why charity does not work. But the great part was a woman named Chandrika Banerjee who talked about how her life has changed radically for the better. It was impressive, touching and heartwarming.