Skip to main content

Earth Hour in Australia, across the globe, and above it



Earth Hour, an annual event since it was first launched in Sydney in 2007, occurs on March 31 from 8:30 to 9:30 pm in each country’s local time zone. Now a global event organized by WWF (previously World Wildlife Fund and now called World Wide Fund for Nature), people and organizations are asked to switch off their lights for an hour. The aim is to be the biggest environmental event of 2012. Hundreds of millions of people will be switching off their lights for one hour, on the same night, all around the world to signal their care and support for planet Earth.

Iconic structures around the world – such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra have turned off their lights for an hour in previous years. Even Arctic stations turned off their lights.
Last year in the Australian capital, Canberra, 52% of people participated in the campaign, a greater proportion of people than any other state. This year more Canberrans are expected to participate, along with more countries. Many restaurants have indicated that they will serve customers by candlelight, and entertainment will be unplugged (no electricity).
Last year more than 5,000 cities in 135 countries participated in Earth Hour. To date, governments in 116 nations have indicated that they will join the Earth Hour campaign. Iraq, Bhutan, and New Caledonia have signed up to participate for the first time. The target is 1.3 billion people across the globe.
Last year Earth Hour was a symbolic gesture to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year the focus is on wider sustainability issues, such as the promotion of sustainable use of resources. This includes buying and eating locally grown food, and preserving biodiversity.
Earth Hour doesn’t mean turning off everything in the home and using absolutely no electricity. The main idea behind Earth Hour is to turn off non-essential lighting for an hour (so you don’t need to turn off the refrigerator or even the television, or safety and security lighting – or traffic lights). Individuals and organizations decide for themselves which lights to turn off. During the hour, it is hoped that people think about long term behavioural environmental change.
For the first time, the international space station will participate in Earth Hour in 2012 by switching off or dimming non-essential lights on March 31. Dutch astronaut, Andre Kuipers, will also provide live commentary from the space station. The space station orbits the Earth 15 times a day, so it will be in a prime position to watch the lights go off around the globe at 8:30 pm in their local time.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou
8 comments
Read more