Perhaps acknowledging that Earth Day has devolved into a passive naval-gazing session for eco-slackers, the World Wildlife Federation has launched Earth Hour, which requires an active lights-out global effort to raise awareness.

Starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Christchurch, New Zealand, citizens from around the world will shut off their lights for an hour, to draw attention to the connection between energy use and climate change. From New Zealand, the event will move westward with the sun to Australia, Manila, Dubai, Dublin, New York, Chicago and finally end in San Francisco, where both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge will go dark for an hour.

And there’s no better way to raise awareness than this:

Earth Hour won’t suffer for a lack of gimmicks. Servers wearing glow-in-the-dark necklaces will sell eco-tinis at bars and restaurants in Phoenix. A local yoga house in Michigan will offer sessions by lamplight, and the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago will have check-in by candlelight.

I guess I’ll see what it’s like in a couple of hours. Frankly, I wasn’t sure I would have noticed if I hadn’t gotten early word of it.

UPDATE, EARTH HOUR PLUS 24: Looks like NYC took a pass on this little green-fest. I saw no evidence of a municipal-wide lights-out; a few corporate advertisers shut down their Times Square mega-watt billboards for the 60 minutes, but no coordinated observance. Most people I talked to had never even heard of the thing. Maybe momentum will be stronger next year.