Earth Hour is a worldwide movement for the planet organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Earth Hour engages a massive mainstream community on a broad range of environmental issues. Millions of people turn off their lights for Earth Hour at 8.30pm (20:30) in their local times on the last Saturday of March. It was famously started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia in 2007.
Since then it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns worldwide, and the one-hour event continues to remain the key driver of the now larger movement. The event is held encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. Earth Hour 2014 was celebrated on March 29, 2014. Earth Hour 2015 is scheduled for Saturday, March 28, from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm duringparticipants’ local time. “I Will If You Will” (IWIYW) is an Earth Hour campaign to encourage positive action for the environment. The actions required are up to the individual or group. They could be big or small and it might be a simple lifestyle change or perhaps something that leads to political change. The campaign intends for people to become the inspiration to their friends, families, colleagues and communities by sharing what they’re willing to do to protect the planet.
According to WWF, Thailand, Bangkok decreased electricity usage by 73.34 megawatts, which, over one hour, is equivalent to 41.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The Bangkok Post gave different figures of 165 megawatt-hours and 102 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This was noted to be significantly less than a similar campaign initiated by Bangkok’s City Hall the previous year in May, when 530 megawatt-hours were saved and 143 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission was cut. The best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand, with the city reporting a drop of 13 per cent in electricity demand. However, national grid operator Transpower reported that New Zealand’s power consumption during Earth Hour was 335 megawatts, higher than the 328 megawatt average of the previous two Saturdays. Melbourne, Australia reduced demand by 10.1 per cent. Sydney, being the city that participated in both the 2007 and 2008 Earth Hours, cut electricity consumption by 8.4 per cent.
In 2013, the world’s first Earth Hour Forest began in Uganda, as a first step to fight the 6,000 hectares of deforestation that occur in the country every month. The WWF-Uganda team identified close to 2,700 hectares of degraded land, and used the I Will If You Will concept to challenge businesses, Government officials and individuals to fill it with at least 500,000 trees during the year. Standard Chartered Bank-Uganda pledged to help fill the forest with more than 250,000 trees. A 2014 study published in Energy Research and Social Science compiled 274 measurements of observed changes in electricity demand caused by Earth Hour in 10 countries, spanning 6 years, and found that the events reduced electricity consumption an average of 4 per cent.
India joined the movement in 2009 and since then, the movement has reached out to approximately 10 million individuals across 150 cities. Iconic monuments like the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Gateway of India, India Gate and Victoria Memorial switch off non-essential lights in support of this campaign. Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, actor Amir Khan and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar have promoted the campaign as brand ambassadors in the past. Bollywood star Arjun Kapoor will be representing as brand ambassador of Earth Hour campaign this year.
Earth Hour was supported around the world by Nelson Mandela, supermodel Miranda Kerr, cricket legend Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo and former US Vice President Al Gore. Earth Hour is an initiative to encourage individuals, businesses and Governments around the world to take accountability for their ecological footprint and engage in dialogue and resource exchange that provides real solutions to our environmental challenges. Participation in Earth Hour symbolises a commitment to change beyond the hour.
(Dr Senapati is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, Trident Academy of Technology, Bhubaneswar-751024, E Mail: dr_senapati@yahoo.com)