Earth Hour 2008 aftermath

March 29, 2008: The cities went into darkness. That was part of the Earth Hour project, in which people in major cities around the world (including Sydney, Toronto, San Francisco, Tel Aviv and Manila) turned off their lights for one hour: office buildings, homes, shops, bridges and other facilities went dark.

The idea behind this project, promoted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), was to raise awareness about the need of action to counter the climate changes worldwide. And yes, a very good step into that is to slow down global warming by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, some of which are a result of the production and consumption of electricity everywhere.

The Earth Hour project was indeed a remarkable success, and I want to believe it did raise awareness about this climate change problem that we are facing. However, it should be considered only as a first step. I believe that there is much more to do, a change of our attitude towards nature and a change of our habits (e. g. excessive use of cars, not recycling reusable materials, waste of natural resources, etc) is very necessary to consider that we are making a difference. But again, this is a nice first step, and as Confucius said, "a thousand mile trip begins with a single step". So thumbs up to the WWF and people around the world who contributed to the success of Earth Hour!

More about Earth Hour in its official website and WWF's website.