Earth Hour 2012: No Fireworks and Candles Please
Few days from today, the participants of the Earth Hour all over the world will simultaneously switch off or dim their lights in support of the campaign. Earth Hour was conceived in 2007 through the initiatives of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Sydney Morning Herald. This was first held in Sydney and was believed to be supported by 2.2 million residents. It was a year after when the world, including the Philippines, participated the event and on March 31 this year, the planet is again encouraged to turn their lights off at 8:30PM – 9:30PM.
The purpose of the Earth Hour is to raise awareness of the global issues, particularly in climate change or global warming and the overuse of non-renewable resources. The world is already burning millions of tons of crude oil, coal, or fossil fuels to generate electricity resulting to dumping of significant amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) and other combustion products to the atmosphere. This green house is the main culprit of the major increase of the Earth’s temperature, and as we all know, this temperature change caused the extreme weather disturbances we had and the extinction of some inhabitants. So, the Earth Hour is organized, not only to educate but to save energy for at least an hour. This savings would mean reduced amount of fuel burnt and reduced amount of greenhouse gas dumped.
However, some of us join the Earth Hour for the sake of participation without knowing that we are already defeating its purpose. Please note that the Earth Hour is not an occasion to be celebrated but an educational campaign to be learned, hence a fireworks display is not needed. Fireworks do not only produce greenhouse gases but toxic fumes too. Lighting up candles is also not a good alternative. Aside from being prone to catching fire, it also releases carbon dioxide. So if everyone lighted candles during the event, that would be enough to invert the effect of the Earth hour, thus, defeating its purpose.
Photo screenshot from a Yahoo! article
If you would like to participate in the Earth Hour, make sure that you do not defeat its purpose, you can use energy-saving LED pin lights to temporarily illuminate your dim night. Also, make sure that you have turned off your other electrical devices and appliances too. These devices consume more electricity compared to your fluorescent lamp. You may have switched off your lights but allowing significant amount of electricity flowing to your electronics is still defeating its purpose.
At the end of the day, it is still up to us on which way we would like to achieve its essence. Mine is this way.
You too can join the Earth Hour ‘I Will IF You Will’ campaign. Please visit Earth Hour website here.