To render our services to Earth, we don’t need to be connected by Land, rather connected by an ideology, by hearts, a sense of indebtedness for the Mother.
Every year on Earth day, millions of people make a symbolic attempt to switch off their lights, mobile or anything that emits enough rays to trouble Earth for an hour. This can help reduce the effects of global warming and raise awareness for climate change and wildlife conservation.
But it has travelled long beyond being just a symbol of change, it has become more: a catalyst, a trigger, an impetus for striving more, to render positive environmental impact that may lead to probable drastic legislative changes across the entire continents.
A brief history of the Hour:
The concept of switching off the non-essential lights began with the advent of Climate change as WWF(world wide fund for nature) began influencing the youth to test their standard of living for an hour. It came to forefront that Climate change alone was not at play, rather Biodiversity loss and losses of Nature were also impacting us.
Nature is fundamentally essential for us and our future on this planet, be it for food, protection, water, clean air, resources and other ecosystem services worth over US$125 trillion a year that needs to be saved judiciously.
Therefore, Earth Hour is just not only about Earth as planet but Earth as a whole, including the Environmental conservation, Climate change and Sustainability and even Human’s own health, happiness, prosperity and even survival.
Every year, Earth Hour is expected to be observed on the last Saturday of March, precisely at 8:30 pm, conducted by WWF.
It got famously started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia in 2007.
Since then it has flourished to associate more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide apart from the ever bulging followers and drivers of the movement. Today, Earth Hour provides a nexus between a massive mainstream community and its environment, based on a broad range of environmental issues.
Earth Hour and Earth Day: are they same?
No, although their objectives and concerns may complement each other but they run parallel to each other.
With Earth Hour as climate change initiative that empowers people to reduce their electricity usage.
Earth Day (April 22) celebrates and embraces our gifted natural environment by inspiring people to plant more trees, recycle regularly and keep the planet clean and habitable.
What is new with Earth Hour 2021?
Earth hour had previously brought the public out onto the roads to mark this hour.
Entire buildings, cities and even skylines would go dark for it was said that Earth could rest for an hour. But this year, it has been planned in a bit reverse character.
Switching off one’s lights while being online. On the night of Earth Hour i.e. 27th March this year, WWF will post a must-watch video on its social media pages, open to likes, re-tweets and being shared across the planet.
The aim will be simple: to snatch and put the spotlight back on our Planet.
The video is expected to help understand the Unaware folks about their respective roles amidst the planetary crisis and will be use to garner momentum over upcoming UN’s conference on Biodiversity and UN decade on ecosystem restoration (2021-30).
This has the ability to create a domino-effect for changes to come.
How far has Earth Hour connected People?
With more than 4.7 billion global social media impressions, and related hashtags trending in 37 countries, as Earth Hour’s last year report states, it is spreading awareness and motivating people around.
Do we need Earth hour?
- With ever increasing population of the world, the climate change has put the humankind at a great risk along with other species. We have become vulnerable to the core.
2. Global warming, pollution, rapid industrialization, declining forest cover and rising sea levels are some of the dangers those have inhibited the proper working of the planet and Humans.
3. Though the largest polluters are big industries, this can make masses more aware about the impending dangers of adverse climate which will yield them to put the required pressure on their respective governments to frame environment-friendly policies and laws.
Indeed, the aim is to adopt more sustainable lifestyle.
Is it that effective?
Turning off lights for an hour is just an annual reminder that if the world does not mend its ways, it will be heading to a dark age.
A research was conducted to assess this question. It undertook the required measurement for 10 countries and concluded: These events reduced electricity consumption an average of 4%, with a range of +2% (New Zealand) to −28% (Canada).
Thereby, illustrating how responsible behavior can quantitatively affect regional electricity demand.
Scientific studies have yet again proved that unsustainable exploitation of nature is fairly responsible for recent extreme weather events across the globe and even the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“2021 is a crucial year for humanity. As the world tries to turn the tide and recover from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild itself, we need to put nature at the centre of our recovery efforts to future proof our economies and societies.
Earth Hour is a critical moment for individuals, leaders, and environmentalists to unite and call for urgent action to reverse nature loss and secure a nature-positive world by 2030.” According to Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International.
A joint study by WWF-India and TERI, The Energy Report – India: 100% Renewable Energy by 2050, has successfully highlighted that any aggressive efficiency improvement across the energy demand and supply sides may have a tremendous potential to reduce overall energy demand by about 59 per cent at the national level.
Our optimism and attempts matter to Mother Earth as she rests waiting to be healed.
Let’s make this Earth Hour a memorable one.