| Earth Hour is the annual international event, conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is conducted on last the Saturday of March and urges households and commercial establishments to turn-off lights and electrical appliances for one hour to arouse interest towards the need for taking action on climatic change. For the first time, this event was organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature in Australia together with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 but received worldwide support only a year later.
The next Earth Hour will take place on Saturday, 28th March, 2009, at 20:30 local time.
Considering that the Earth Hour was supported by 35 leading cities worldwide and also more than 400 other cities, the Earth Hour in 2008 was successful and was observed on all of the 6 continents. Outstanding monuments worldwide turned-off illumination on the occasion of Earth Hour and the participants among them were: the Empire State Building (New York), Sears Tower (Chicago), “Golden Gate Bridge” (San Francisco), Bank American-Plaza (Atlanta), Sydney Opera House (Australia), “Wat Arun” Buddhist Temple (Bangkok, Thailand), Colosseum (Rome, Italy), Royal Castle (Stockholm, Sweden), London’s City Hall (England), Space Needle (Seattle) and the CN Tower (Toronto, Canada). The official website, earthhour.org, received more than 6.7 million unique visitors a week prior to the event. Other websites also participated, in particular, the homepage of search engine “Google” changed its background from a white color to black on that day.
In an online-survey by Zogby International 36 million people took part in Earth Hour in 2008 and approximately 50 million participated in a similar survey outside the Internet. Immediately after the event a survey revealed a 4% growth in interest through questions on environment and climatic changes.
Is Earth Hour is simply a symbolical event, which does not have a direct effect on climatic change?
The hour during which all lights and unnecessary electrical appliances were turned-off is only one of the actions of the parties. Earth Hour supports long-term actions on reduction of ecological traces such as people, companies, governments and nations - as on the day of Earth Hour as well as in the future.
For example, one of the company participants of Earth Hour 2008 in Australia incorporated the following changes after Earth Hour:
* Changed the lighting system so that the light remain turned-on for less time and its convenient for the employees to turn-off the un-utilized light;
* Shifted to an ecologically pure energy sources by 25% from inherent power consumption, equaling to 255 cars per annum which would disappear from the roads;
* Installed additional stairs to avoid the use of lifts for short distances;
* Established bicycle parking so as to simplify the coming of employees to work on bicycles;
* Urged employees to receive correspondence – reports, marketing information or annual reports through email.
What actually is Earth Hour?
Earth Hour is a global event of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Individuals, companies and governments shall turn-of the lights for one hour in support of the fight against climatic change. The aim is to draw the attention of people, governments and business organizations towards changes in climate and appeal to them to take measures in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases to save electric power. In 2007, individuals, companies and government departments in Sydney turned-off lights for one hour taking a step towards reducing the city emissions of greenhouse gases. This action became popular as “Earth Hour”. In 2008, more than 370 cities from 35 countries turned-off lights and around 50 million individuals participated in Earth Hour. In 2009, the event “Earth Hour” will be on much more large-scale!
The aims of this action?
Earth Hour gives a chance to millions of individuals to put in their contribution in fighting against climatic changes. Earth Hour appeals to people to change their attitude towards power consumption. Earth Hour urges politicians to take firm measures to fight the climatic changes.
It is a symbolic action, which has three main objectives:
Draw the attention of the world community towards issues related to global warming.
Earth Hour is the most successful information campaign on climatic change as of today. By means of symbolic action – turning-off lights - each person in any corner of the world can demonstrate his concern regarding dangerous climatic changes and “vote” for a healthy Planet. Earth Hour is an expressive symbol of public appeal towards resolute measures on the preservation of a healthy climate and on the decrease in emissions of greenhouse gases.
An appeal for people worldwide to save energy and other natural resources:
Earth Hour indicates that each person, company and government can contribute their share in the fight against climatic changes and take steps in the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases the main cause for the present changes in climate. WWF hopes that thanks to this action, people understand the relationship between climatic changes and the extravagant consumption of power and shall start consuming power in a much more responsible manner. Earth Hour should give impetus to save energy every day.
The signing of the Kyoto report in Copenhagen in December, 2009:
Earth Hour provides a chance to society to declare loudly that the world is keeping a close watch on the course of negotiations of the signing of an effective international contract by politicians in December 2009 in Copenhagen during the UN Conference. This agreement replaces the Kyoto Protocol and specifies activities of all countries in the fight against climatic changes at least up to 2020. Earth Hour 2009 is trying to touch 1 billion individual participants from more than 1000 cities, which is 1/6th the population of the Earth and world leaders cannot ignore such a figure. |
This Saturday at 8pm (local time) millions of people across the world as well as thousands of businesses turned off their lights for an hour to promote electricity conservation. The event is called
Earth Hour and it was first held a two years ago in 2007. This year, on March 28, the event was joined by over 80 countries, 4000 cities, and numerous locations - from Antarctic research base and the Great Pyramids of Egypt to the Empire State Building in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
