Switching off lights a small step to activate big change

Straits Times Forum 2 Apr 09;

WE AT the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) would like to thank Mr Lor Choon Yee for his letter, 'Switching off lights alone won't save Mother Earth', on Monday. He is absolutely right. It won't.

But the larger objective of the Earth Hour campaign just might help us make a start.

Ultimately, climate change has three major imperatives: urgency, a global effort and leadership. In line with these, Earth Hour's primary objective was to provide a sense of urgency - that we must act now. By creating an 'hour' for focus, we hope that we achieved this urgency.

The secondary objective for Earth Hour was to highlight that when we unite and work together, we can achieve change. Certainly the event demonstrated a growing momentum all over the world to make change a reality beyond one single hour or one single person.

And having made a change once, we are now asking individuals to consider permanently changing their behaviour - why not reset your air-conditioner, recycle more or take public transport?

But the third objective is perhaps the most important of all. Earth Hour was designed to provide a global visual spectacle representing a mandate from one billion people who believe in the need for action on climate change.

This vote is now in the hands of world leaders who will be gathering in Copenhagen in December for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

At WWF, this is the space in which our work will continue over the next eight months. We will be encouraging world leaders to step up to meet this challenge and achieve a just, science- based and effective agreement.

But what of the question of energy usage? Interestingly, a recent WWF report, 'Climate Solutions: The WWF Vision for 2050', concluded that the technologies and sustainable energy resources known or available today are in fact sufficient to meet the growing global energy demand while avoiding dangerous climatic change.

Moreover, there is still sufficient time to build up and deploy them, but only if the necessary decisions are made in the next three years.

That's why for us, Earth Hour's contribution by the micro (through the people) is critical to make a difference to the macro (infrastructure and policy).

This is the space in which we can truly save Mother Earth, and the space in which we hope the people of Singapore will continue to engage with and support the WWF in achieving its goal.

Carine Seror (Ms)
Director, Corporate Responsibility
(& Earth Hour Campaign Manager)
World Wide Fund for Nature

Why not every month?
Murali Sharma, Today Online 2 Apr 09;

Is one hour a year to observe Earth Hour good enough?

Why not try one hour a month, on the last Saturday of each month? Saving the Earth cannot only be about saving electricity.

We need to adopt a total approach — conserving water, not littering, reusing waste and others.