Earth Hour…Where do we go from here?

By: Sonia Toor 206781181

All the lights around the world were shut off on Saturday March 29th, 2008 during the hours of 8pm-9pm. Earth Hour is organized by the World Wildlife Fund and calls Earth Hour a huge success. This article was mainly about how through this one event or action made by people simply integrated the world and brought together people form all different parts of the globe, it created a connection.

Earth Hour spread from the city of Sydney in Australia in 2007, and it spread to more than 300 communities in two dozen countries. Millions of people around the world participated in the event by turning of lights and other electrical gear during the hours of 8-9pm. The best results are from Christchurch in New Zealand, and Melbourne Australia. Toronto Hydro reported the drop in Toronto to be 8.7% compared to the three year average. Ontario as a whole was 5.2%.

The organizers from the beginning have called Earth Hour a symbolic event to show the concerns and inspire long-term action. The question that arises is that will Earth Hour really be an indication social change or just become an idea that slowly erodes over time? The real challenge for Earth Hour is how to take it to the next step, and take it from being an awareness raising campaign into something bigger and more concrete. “It would be better to involve all environment groups and businesses, and possibly combine it with events like Earth Day” said Andy Ridley who is the executive director of Earth Hour.

This article relates to the course in a way that the event of Earth Hour compresses the space between countries around the world and connects them with this one event. Groups were also created on facebook in regards to how many people were going to participate in the event, and people were engaging in discussions about how they are or aren’t and the reasons behind it. Therefore, Earth Hour is an idea that not only leads the world to engage in change, but also brings the world closer together.

Source: Toronto Star, Monday March 31st, 2008, page A1 and A17