Many well-known spots in the Netherlands switched off their lights for an hour on Saturday evening for Earth Hour.

Several cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Groningen turned off the lights of some of their characteristic monuments. The seventh edition of Earth Hour was joined by a record 147 countries around the world, compared with 135 last year. In the Netherlands too interest was keen with 34,000 people joining the event, up from 30,000 last year.

Dutch astronaut André Kuipers also participated in the event. He switched off lights in spaces in the International Space Station where no one was working at the time. From space he also took pictures of countries that partook in the global environmental action.

(cl/rk)

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