EARTH HOUR 2015

Did You Turn off the Lights?

by Kevin Clasper-Inglis

This past Saturday, people in countries all around the world took part in Earth Hour, an hour on the last Saturday in March every year dedicated to bringing attention to climate change and the need for rethinking our energy consumption habits.

During this one hour, all unnecessary lighting is turned off in homes, businesses, institutions and communities and people spend an hour in the dark, consuming no electricity. The movement started in Sydney, Australia in 2007, organized by WWF. It is now a huge global event with participants from Spain to Malaysia to Iceland.

The primary objective of Earth Hour is not so much to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emission, as it has been pointed out by many critics that the global reduction of carbon emitted is quite insignificant, but to bring climate change to the attention of world leaders and ordinary citizens in general and hopefully provide a basis on which to rethink and change energy consumption habits.

The movement also has support from many large organizations such as the NHL, FIFA, IKEA, and UNESCO and is also endorsed by many celebrities such as the late Nelson Mandela, Yoko Ono, Coldplay, Al Gore, Cate Blanchett, and Jessica Alba, the global ambassador for Earth Hour 2013. It is arguably one of the most effective climate change movements to be conceived thus far.

If you missed it but can’t wait until next year to take part in pro-environment movements, International Earth Day is on April 22nd, less than a month away.