Melvyn Thomas | TNN Surat: Over 67,000 streetlights managed by Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and non-essential lights in thousands of city households were switched off for an hour during 'Earth Hour 'to lend support to global initiative against cli mate change on Saturday Following the global initiative taken by 1 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to observe Earth Hour by switching off the lights for an hour on March 28, SMC's Energy Efficiency Cell (EEC) had urged denizens to participate by voluntarily switchmg off non-essential lights and electric appliances. Sources said the public call has generated huge response among people. Various industrial associations and social organisations have appealed to their members and public to whole-heartedly support the initiative starting 8.30 pm on Saturday. According to the Earth Hour website, it began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 mil lion homes and businesses switched off their lights for an hour. In 2008, the message had grown into a global sustain-ability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Glob-al landmarks such as Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosse-Sydney Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness. Head of EEC and SMC's additional city engineer V D Patel said, "Global warming and climate change pose a real challenge to the world. Earth Hour is a symbolic event designed to engage people from all walks of life in climate change initiative. It should not be a one-day affair." South Gujarat Textile Processors' Association had urged its members to lend support to the initiative. "It's not possible for us to switch off electricity at our units, but we participated by switching off our lights for an hour," said SGTPA president Pramod Chaudhary