Niamh Redmond

Earth Hour, run by WWF, is a a global climate change initiative and international event, which calls on individuals and businesses around the world to flick the switch by turning off their lights and electrical appliances for one hour. Earth Hour 2008 will take place this evening, the 29th of March, at 8p.m. local time to promote electricity conservation and “thus lower carbon emissions”. The aim of the campaign is to “express that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet for the better”.

ESB Customer Supply, in association with the Power of One energy efficiency campaign are just one of the Irish businesses supporting Earth Hour 2007. According to Friends of the Environment, Dublin was the first Irish city to commit to Earth Hour.

Light Pollution in Ireland. Source: Irish Light Pollution Awareness Campaign website

So, when did this all start?

Earth Hour, under the working title ‘the big flick’, was conceived in December 2005 as a way in which parts of the Australian community could be engaged by and alerted to the need to address climate change.

“A partnership was formed in August 2006 between WWF-Australia’s Andy Ridley, Leo Burnett’s Nigel Marsh and Fairfax Media’s Phil McLean with a planned campaign date of early 2007. Earth Hour was launched publicly as a Sydney-only event on December 16 2006 by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and took place at 7.30pm on March 31 2007.

Following significant interest from both inside Australia and around the world, Earth Hour was formed into a non-profit entity owned by WWF-Australia, Leo Burnett and Fairfax Media. The decision was taken to make Earth Hour an open source model, allowing any genuinely interested individual, company, media or government anywhere in the world to adopt the campaign for 2008.”

I wrote an article in August 2007 about Wikinomics and how it is changing the World. To re-cap briefly, Wikinomics is based on four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. That article came to mind while I was writing this post because I remember how I ended the article:

“… could wikinomics change more than the way we do business? Could it save the world?! Tapscott argues, it is indeed a power for good: ‘For the first time, we have a worldwide movement to fight global warming. The stake, survival of the planet, is worth the risk.’ ”

Despite a certain level of criticism and debate from commentators that questioned whether whether humans are responsible for global warming in the first place or whether the hour caused a significant reduction in electricity consumption at all, the campaign undoubtedly has caused major capital cities to unite with each other and has raised awareness about this issue. At the very least, it symbolises people’s commitment to find solutions for climate change and sends out a clear message - that action is possible and together we can try to create a sustainable future.

“The event itself will clearly demonstrate in participating cities, the connection between energy usage and climate change, showing that we as broader community can address the biggest threat our planet has ever faced.”

From http://www.earthhour.org/about:

“It started with a question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change?

The answer: Ask the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

Note: Astronomy Ireland is holding a special astronomy evening at the Papal Cross Car Park in Phoenix Park hoping to be able to show ‘some of the objects in the night sky which would normally be difficult to see because of light pollution’.

Related Links:

• “See the difference you can make” - Earth Hour 2008 official website

• VOICE: Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment: Global Earth Hour - March 29^th 8pm - turn off your lights! (*Side-note: I did work experience in VOICE when I was a teenager. )

• Wikipedia: Earth Hour
• Irish Light Pollution Awareness Campaign website
• MTV ‘Switch’ Campaign

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 6:09 pm and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.