Earth Hour Approaches

by Christine McLaughlin

Tomorrow the World Wildlife Fund wants one billion people to turn their lights off for an hour in a bid to raise awareness about climate change. Earth Hour is a brilliantly inclusive concept: switching off one’s lights for an hour is very achievable, so it’s a great way to engage people in the global movement against the slow demise of our planet.

Trafford Green Party’s European elections candidate, Margaret Westbrook, has been contacting various businesses in the area to ask whether they will participate in Earth Hour. Manchester United and the Imperial War Museum North are two notable participants among many others.

Some of the young people I teach have written to the Trafford Centre to tell them about Earth Hour; in the process we came across the Trafford Centre blog which revealed they have recently changed to energy saving LED lights. These use a fraction of the energy produced by the old style sodium lighting. They also represent a willingness on the part of the business community to cut back on carbon emissions.

One of my students remarked that there should be an Earth Hour every week and it does seem very possible that something bigger will grow out of this. The World Wildlife Fund is using Earth Hour to launch a campaign for a new global deal. In December 2009, governments will be gathering at the UN CLimate Summmit in Copenhagen to come up with new targets to replace those under the existing Kyoto Protocol. Taking part in Earth Hour is a way of showing our leaders that we want them to make the right choices in Copenhagen. Voting Green in the European elections on June 4th is another.