Vijay Malik
The Earth Hour campaign is being organized by WWF for raising awareness and consciousness for protecting the environment and addressing climate change. This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF is urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.
This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard. Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights.
In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet.
This is a global campaign involving more than 825 cities across 80 countries pledging support by voluntarily switching off lights between 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on March 28, 2009.
India is joining the campaign for the first time this year with Delhi and Mumbai taking the lead along with other cities like Pune and Bangalore. Significant support has been mobilized with involvement of the Delhi Government, the Mumbai Mayor and other relevant government officials, as well as corporates like HSBC, Wipro and HP. The details are available at
http://www.earthhour.in/ . Noted film actor and icon Aamir Khan will be leading the campaign in India.
In support of the campaign and as an indication of our commitment to the cause, the UNDP will be switching off all non-essential lights in the Country Office between 8:30-9:30 p.m. on 28 March 2009.
We request you to help spread the Earth Hour message by simply switching off all the non-essential lights in your homes on Saturday for an hour and encourage your offices and friends to do the same.
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EARTH HOUR is a global World Wildlife Fund (WWF) climate changeinitiative. Individuals, businesses, governments and communities areinvited to turn out their lights for one hour on March 28, 2009 at8:30 pm to show their support for action on climate change.
Let Dwarkaites show solidarity with the world by turning off lights intheir homes, offices, societies, pockets for ONE HOUR.
Mahesh Tak
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Lets support the intitiatve. We shall also take pledge, in future too, we shall use energy at the optimum. Same is also applicable for other resouces like fuel (petrol/diesel) etc..switch off engine at red light.
Arvind Agrawal