Video of the Day: Earth Hour 2012

by Jessica Marati on

The imagery is powerful: people from around the world, holding hands and candles in the dark, while iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Coliseum shut down their lights in recognition of Earth Hour 2012, one of the world’s largest voluntary actions for the environment. The evocative Sigur Rós soundtrack doesn’t hurt either.

Earth Hour calls upon individual citizens to switch off their lights for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Started in 2006 by WWF-Australia, the event quickly became a movement, spreading to hundreds of millions of people across 135 countries in just five years. Through an aggressive social media campaign, Earth Hour continues to send a strong message for environmental awareness, urging people to learn more about the global climate change crisis and take actions “beyond the hour” to lesson their impact.

This year’s Earth Hour is scheduled for Saturday, March 31, at 8:30 p.m. local time. If climate change is important to you, don’t miss the chance to join a movement for change.

Video of the Day: Two days in Zion National Park

by Mike Barish on

Zion National Park in Utah is one of those places that exceeds expectations and defies explanation. I might just be partial to it because I’m getting married there in June, but it truly is an awe-inspiring place. Red rocks line steep canyons and wild flowers dot the horizon. It’s difficult to imagine what early settlers of the West must have thought when they came across Zion. This video shows two days in the life of Zion in January of this year. The whole video is gorgeous, but the trip through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel is a highlight for sure.

Photo of the day: Croatian winter sunset

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Wow. Wintertime is awesome, even if not every Croatian winter sunset can be quite as breathtaking as this one. Flickr user mmusnjak captured this sunset in Croatia’s Northern Velebit National Park in February. In his photo notes on Flickr he mentions casually that he hiked for three hours through snow to reach this point.

Let’s see more winter photos on Gadling before the season yields to spring. Upload your snowy fields, your icy rivers and your frostbitten fingers to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. (Ok, not your frostbitten fingers! Avoid frostbite!) We choose our favorites from the pool to be Photos of the Day. Let’s finish winter right!

Photo of the Day: the greener side of Antarctica

by Meg Nesterov on

We see a lot of amazing images from Antarctica, some with jaw-dropping glaciers and icebergs, others with cuddlier subjects like penguins. Seeing the greener side of Antarctica is rarer, as we tend to envision the continent as perennially covered in ice and snow. While no trees and few leafy plants grow there, you can still see green fields like the one above captured by Flickr user SummitVoice1 on some of the sub-Antarctic islands. The almost plush animal-like chinstrap penguins pop against the background of green grass and white feathers.

Add your unusual travel photos to the Gadling Flickr pool and you may see one featured as a future Photo of the Day.

Photo of the Day: Pueblos blancos of Vejer de la Frontera

by Jessica Marati on

Today’s Photo of the Day depicts a stunning vista of white homes and colorful rooftops in Vejer de la Frontera, a tiny hilltop town at the tip of Spain overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The town, like many in the Andalusian region, is split into two parts: the old Moorish medieval quarter and the newer district with characteristic pueblos blancos, pictured here. Flickr user Kurt Schmidt captured this image using a Canon EOS 7D on a recent jaunt through Spain.

Does your photo belong here? Upload your favorite travel shots, whether pro or Instagram, to the Gadling Group Pool and your image could be selected as our Photo of the Day.