This Saturday, people all over the world will switch their lights off for one hour as a global gesture towards creating a more sustainable future.
Known as Earth Hour, the initiative launched in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. People were encouraged to switch off the lights for one hour to highlight our overwhelming reliance upon energy. The effort made a big splash and Earth Hour spread to 35 countries the following year. Now recognised as a global sustainability movement, Earth Hour has become one of the biggest environmental awareness milestones on the calendar with people in 150 countries participating in the 2012 event.
India held its first Earth Hour in 2009 with more than 50 cities taking part. In line with the booming popularity of Earth Hour worldwide, 2012 saw the number of participating cities jump to 150. In 2013, Earth Hour in India is being observed between 20:30 and 21:30 IST and there are scores of ways you can get involved including attending or hosting and Earth Hour event.
The focus of this year’s event is to highlight the need to switch over to renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind power.
Despite its soaring popularity, Earth Hour is not without its critics. Earlier this week, the website Slate published an article by Danish environmental writer Bjørn Lomborg which argued that the initiative actually increased CO2 emissions rather than reduced them.
According to the article “As the United Kingdom’s National Grid operators have found, a small decline in electricity consumption does not translate into less energy being pumped into the grid, and therefore will not reduce emissions. Moreover, during Earth Hour, any significant drop in electricity demand will entail a reduction in CO2 emissions during the hour, but it will be offset by the surge from firing up coal or gas stations to restore electricity supplies afterward.”
Lomborg also argues that Earth Hour simplifies the complex issue of climate change and, in fact, does not provide any solid solution to it. The article has stirred up a heated debate about the effectiveness of Earth Hour (just check out the article’s comments section) but it does bring up an interesting argument and that is: how successful can an energy reduction campaign be if its method of protest ends up increasing energy output?
Agree or disagree, one cannot deny Earth Hour’s mighty pull and ability to engage the masses. It’s key strength, therefore, may lie not in the immediate CO2 emissions figures but in the ability to spread awareness of the crucial issue of global warming. The concept of an energy reduction campaign emitting more CO2 is more than a little nonsensical, yes, but perhaps it is short-sighted to weight the value of Earth Hour entirely on these terms. If engagement is one of the first steps towards behavioural change and even activism, surely it is a little too rash to completely write off an event that 1.3 billion people take part in.
Want to get involved? Find out what’s happening for Earth Hour in India by visiting the website.