Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event designed to highlight the threat from climate change. From the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and London’s Houses of Parliament, lights were dimmed as part of a campaign to encourage people to cut energy use and curb greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

Organizers said the action showed millions of people wanted governments to work out a strong new U.N. deal to fight global warming by the end of 2009, even though the global economic crisis has raised worries about the costs.

“We have been dreaming of a new climate deal for a long time,” Kim Carstensen, head of a global climate initiative at the conservation group WWF, said in a candle-lit bar in the German city of Bonn, which hosts U.N. climate talks between March 29 and April 8.

“Now we’re no longer so alone with our dream. We’re sharing it with all these people switching off their lights,” he said as delegates and activists sipped bluish cocktails.

The U.N. Climate Panel says greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and will lead to more floods, droughts, heatwaves, rising sea levels and animal and plant extinctions.

World emissions have risen by about 70 percent since the 1970s. China has recently overtaken the United States as the top emitter, ahead of the European Union, Russia and India.

BILLION PEOPLE TAKE PART

The U.N. Climate Panel says rich nations will have to cut their emissions to a level between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of warming. Developing nations will also have to slow the rise of their emissions by 2020, it says.

Australia first held Earth Hour in 2007 and it went global in 2008, attracting 50 million people, organizers say. WWF, which started the event, is hoping one billion people from nearly 90 countries will take part.

“The primary reason we do it is because we want people to think, even if it is for an hour, what they can do to lower their carbon footprint, and ideally take that beyond the hour,” Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley told reporters at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

A lucky 200 people have been shortlisted for the chance to become the caretaker of a tropical Australian island, dubbed by promoters as the “Best Job in the World.”But tourism officials acknowledged Friday that many last-minute applications were lost because the Web site was flooded with traffic.

Nearly 35,000 people submitted video applications for the job with Tourism Queensland, which pays a salary of 150,000 Australian dollars ($97,000) to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months while writing a blog to promote the island.

The job is part of a AU$1.7 million campaign to publicize the charms of northeastern Queensland state.

Anthony Hayes, Tourism Queensland’s chief executive, said a wave of 7,500 applications hit the Web site in the 72 hours before Monday’s deadline.

“This massive amount of traffic understandably slowed the site down and regretfully some people weren’t able to get their video application in on time,” he said. “It has been frankly heartbreaking because people have gone to so much trouble, and we have lost some fantastic applications. But to be fair to everyone, we have to be consistent.”

The tourism board will announce 50 finalists Tuesday on its Web site. The public will then have until March 24 to vote for their favorite applicant.

Something else was on Dave Rohlman’s mind when he asked for a volunteer to shoot two free throws awarded his team on a technical foul in the second quarter. His senior captain raised his hand, ready to go to the line as he had many times before. Only this time it was different.

“You realize you’re going to miss them, don’t you?” Rohlman said.

Darius McNeal nodded his head. He understood what had to be done.

It was a Saturday night in February, and the Barbs were playing a non-conference game on the road against Milwaukee Madison. It was the third meeting between the two schools, who were developing a friendly rivalry that spanned two states.

The teams planned to get together after the game and share some pizzas and soda. But the game itself almost never took place.

Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital. Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight with cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam.

Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off the life-support system. Carlitha Franklin was just 39.

“She was young and they were real close,” said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital. “He was very distraught and it happened so suddenly he didn’t have time to grieve.”

Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play. And play they did, even though the game started late and Milwaukee Madison dressed only eight players.

Early in the second quarter, Womack saw someone out of the corner of his eye. It was Franklin, who came there directly from the hospital to root his teammates on.

The Knights had possession, so Womack called a time out. His players went over and hugged their grieving teammate. Fans came out of the stands to do the same.

“We got back to playing the game and I asked if he wanted to come and sit on the bench,” Womack said during a telephone interview.

“No,” Franklin replied. “I want to play.”

There was just one problem. Since Franklin wasn’t on the pre-game roster, putting him in meant drawing a technical foul that would give DeKalb two free throws.

Though it was a tight game, Womack was willing to give up the two points. It was more important to help his senior guard and co-captain deal with his grief by playing.

Over on the other bench, though, Rohlman wasn’t so willing to take them. He told the referees to forget the technical and just let Franklin play.

“I could hear them arguing for five to seven minutes, saying, `We’re not taking it, we’re not taking it,” Womack said. “The refs told them, no, that’s the rule. You have to take them.”

That’s when Rohlman asked for volunteers, and McNeal’s hand went up.

He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.

His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line. The second barely left his hand.

It didn’t take long for the Milwaukee players to figure out what was going on.

They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship. Soon, so did everybody in the stands.

“I did it for the guy who lost his mom,” McNeal told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It was the right thing to do.”