Happy Guru 031 - Earth
25 days from now is Earth Hour day. Earth Hour 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. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 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. To alter the course of climate change we must act now. Originating in Sydney in 2007, the Earth Hour campaign has now gained global attention. As a result, on 8pm March 29, 2008 millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities will unite and switch off for Earth Hour. Cities registered to participate this year include: Adelaide, Atlanta, Bangkok, Brisbane, Canberra, Chicago, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Dublin, Manila, Melbourne, Montreal, Odense, Ottawa, Perth, Phoenix, San Francisco, Suva,
Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto & Vancouver. Chicago will serve as the U.S. flagship city for Earth Hour in 2008, with Atlanta, Phoenix and San Francisco joining as leading partner cities. But everyone throughout the US and around the world is invited and encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour on March 29 at 8 p.m.
What will you do when the lights are off? Why not change out those old energy-wasting light bulbs to new, inexpensive and efficient compact fluorescent. Earth Hour is also a great time to consider what you and your family can do in the days and months following, to reduce emissions and live more sustain-ably. Turning the lights off for Earth Hour is a great first step, but if you really want to see a difference, then make Earth Hour part of your everyday life. Simple things like turning off appliances while not in use and switching your light globes to energy efficient bulbs, will all help us reach our goal of reducing our annual emissions by 5%. Even something as simple as turning out lights when you’re not in a room and switching to cleaner sources of electricity like “green power”, make a big difference. For more tips on reducing energy consumption in your home - please refer to Happy Guru Podcast 17 - Standby.
Why not sign up to Earth Hour. Not only will you really feel part of it, but you’ll also receive lots of useful tips and tools. You can register as either an individual, organization, school or business. Once registered, you will receive information on what you can do to be more involved in Earth Hour. To sign-up - please visit - www.earthhour.org/sign-up
You can Tell a friend. Better still, tell all your friends, and your family, and your workmates. Just email them with a link to the Earth Hour web-site.
Create your own Earth Hour – learn how to organize Earth Hour in your town or local community. If you’ve registered as a business, don’t be afraid to advertise your support for Earth Hour.
To support - you can also buy a t-shirt from WWF (www.wwf.org.au/shop). If you’d like to take a more significant role in Earth Hour 2008, contact WWF to find out about support opportunities. Earth Hour have MySpace and FaceBook pages. So far there are 3909 businesses and 63 000 individuals registered on www.earthhour.org
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