Why Earth Hour Matters
People often take it for granted that we only have one home to live in – our planet, Earth. And as much as people love the Earth there is still those things that pose a threat to the environment, things such as pollution, unsustainable farming and reckless living that contribute to climate change. That is why Earth Hour was created to address the issue of climate change and effectively have everyone “join in” in saving the world.
Earth Hour is the planet’s largest, most encompassing environmental campaign that brings the world together in bringing environmental awareness by doing one simple action – turning off the lights. The idea of the campaign came from the international non-government organization World Wide Fund for Nature, commonly known as WWF, which strives to make everything better in the world.
The first ever Earth Hour started in 2007 in Australia where people were invited to show their support for saving the planet and climate change action by turning off their lights for an hour. In its very first campaign to stand up against climate change a stunning 2.2 million people and over 2,000 businesses joined in and turned their lights out – everyone from children, housewives and working dads to politicians, presidents, and CEOs.
A year later it was the whole of Australia that took part in turning off their lights and soon around 35 countries and around 400 cities took part in the effort to support climate change action. Flash-forward to 2012 Earth Hour became the largest environmental campaign ever by having 152 countries and 7,000 cities join in on the switching off their lights.
Because of its success and its impact on the minds of people around the world Earth Hour became more than just a one country environmental campaign and turned into an annual event wherein people are invited to turn off their lights just for one hour on the last Saturday of the month of March.
But Earth Hour is not just about switching off your lights for one solid hour – it’s all about bringing awareness and showing your commitment to create change in the world. Because of the simplicity of the campaign with so profound an impact everyone can join in on participating in Earth Hour.
Why not organize an Earth Hour event in your home, business, company, or neighborhood? The more people involved only means more awareness of climate change and how we can take action against it. You can also your part by using social media as a means for letting people known and inviting them to do their part in that annual hour of no lights.
The Earth is the only home that we have and we owe it to our planet to take care of it. By just switching off the light for one hour, once a year all together we can create change. We can make the commitment to help fight climate change and create a stand to take care of the environment whether it is by recycling, using sustainable materials, or utilizing alternative forms of power – and it all starts by turning off our lights in Earth Hour.