PRESS RELEASE

To mark “Earth Day”, the lights in the Bahá’í gardens were extinguished for an hour

Haifa, 23 April 2009 - The lighting at the Bahá’í gardens was extinguished in stages at 8:20 this evening, as the symbolic part of the participation of the city of Haifa and its residents in “Earth Day” and in the international effort to save energy. The Earth Day initiative began in Australia in order to raise awareness of the importance of saving energy in order to stop global warming. Last year, Tel Aviv participated in the international event, and this year, Jerusalem and Haifa decided to join in as well.

To enable the media to cover the event live, it was decided to darken the cities one after the other. Thus, Tel Aviv turned off its lights at 8:00 P.M., Jerusalem at 8:10 and Haifa at 8:20. At the same time, residents of the country, factories and business owners were asked to turn their lights out for one hour, in order to convey the forceful global message that each person can act simply, but meaningfully and effectively, to minimize the damage caused by man to the earth.