I mentioned Earth Day yesterday, but last week, I missed another important environmental event that took place – Earth Hour. Earth Hour began in 2007, so it is a relatively new green event. It started as a partnership between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and The Sydney Morning Herald. The premise was simple – turn off all non-essential lights for one hour. The WWF and Herald hoped that this conscious effort would raise awareness about the changing climate and that by making small changes, we could do our part to help prevent it.
On March 31, 2007, Earth Hour began with 2.2 million Sydney residents shutting off the lights. Since then, other cities around the world have participated on the last Saturday in March. Last year, cities in China took part in Earth Hour for the first time. Around the world, people in 88 cities, including actress Cate Blanchett and former Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu, turned off the lights in this event, which has since been recognized by the United Nations.
This March 27th, the Sydney Opera House went dark, as did other landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, the Forbidden City, and the Empire State Building. The lights were dimmed for an hour to support a binding pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
All around the world in some 4,000 cities, buildings were voluntarily cutting off the lights to raise awareness. China kicked off their hour by turning off the lights at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center after giant panda Mei Lan walked into a platform from her enclosure. Twenty skyscrapers in Taiwan went dark with hundreds of Taiwanese forming a Taiwan map out of LED lights and place candles beside it in a city square.
Roman Catholic bishops in the Philippines are urging their followers to turn off the light during a church-run radio show that also featured special prayers. Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales said, “Failure of today’s people to care for the earth’s resources is akin to stealing the future of the coming generations.”
Well put Archbishop Rosales, well put.
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