Earth Hour: Using darkness to illuminate the Earth's climate

Ten years ago, Sydney, Australia, helped the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) bring awareness to Earth’s plight of climate change in a big way. People in the city turned off non-essential lights for an hour—even the Sydney Opera House—in hopes that the world’s population would see that our need for electricity and other forms of power were causing irreversible damage to the planet. This small act that started in one city has grown into a massive movement across the world. It’s called Earth Hour.

Over the past decade, more cities, towns and communities have become involved with WWF to observe Earth Hour. Four hundred iconic landmarks such as Big Ben and the British Houses of Parliament, Tokyo Tower, Empire State Building, Marina Bay Sands Hotel (Singapore) and the Eiffel Tower, have put out their lights for an hour. Over 178 communities across the globe have turned off non-essential lights. More Earth Hour parties spring up every year, including Finland when it tries to hold the largest candlelit dinner.

But, if you think it’s a fad where people get all worked up over the climate and forget about it for the rest of the time, it’s far from it. Because of these annual events, WWF and volunteers have helped change laws across the world, funded projects to help the environment and, more importantly, have shown people how much electricity we use needlessly. Last year, the WWF Singapore held a “Plant a Forest” in Sumatra; WWF Tanzania helped put in a solar-powered water pump for the Temeke Municipality primary school and nearby dispensary; Earth Hour participants and WWF helped bring in a law that bans plastic being brought to the Galapagos Islands. And last year, a record number of events were registered—6,600 to be exact.

There are many ways to celebrate Earth Hour. You can have friends over and look up at the sky to see how many stars you can see when the lights go out for an hour. You can join in or cheer on the U of A, MacEwan University and NAIT students as two-person teams compete in the 3^rd Annual Earth Hour Race. You can challenge your friends and family to see how long they can go without using any electronic devices. You can also join one of the many parties that will be held on March 25, 2017, between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm, or even start your own. On the Earth Hour website (www.earthhour.org), there are starter kits that you can download for free or sign up your event so it can get out on social media. Earth Hour shows that if we work together people will listen and we can bring positive changes to the environment.

Here are a few environmental statistics:

• Since the Industrial Revolution, the global temperature has risen by 1° Celsius. Scientists tell us that if temperatures rise more than 2° Celsius, there’s a good possibility of irreversible and catastrophic climate changes.
• The Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica has a big crack in it, roughly 70 miles long. It’s still attached to the continent by only 12 miles of ice. When it breaks free, it’ll be the largest iceberg in the world—about the size of Delaware State.
• Scientists are predicting that the Arctic Sea ice will be gone by 2050. The oceans are absorbing most of the carbon dioxide, which is making the oceans warmer and more acidic.
• In 2007, volunteers collected about 187,000 pounds of illegally dumped trash at the foot of Mount Fuji. In 2001, volunteers brought down over a ton of trash from Mount Everest.
• As of 2013, there are more than 500,000 trackable natural and artificial space debris orbiting Earth; 20,000 of these are larger than a softball.
• NASA and the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration declared 2016 to be the hottest year on record, the third year in a row.

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