What is 60 Earth Hour? Is it a good idea? Considering all of the global turmoil going on right now, are you surprised at the reach this movement...

Earth Hour is an international movement whose main aim is to advocate for action on climate change. It is coordinated by the World Wide Fund for Nature, an international non-governmental organization concerned with environmental conservation work. Its website details that it is a non-profit organization that is based in Singapore and whose mission involves “uniting people to protect the planet.” It first started out as a “lights off” event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, and...

Earth Hour is an international movement whose main aim is to advocate for action on climate change. It is coordinated by the World Wide Fund for Nature, an international non-governmental organization concerned with environmental conservation work. Its website details that it is a non-profit organization that is based in Singapore and whose mission involves “uniting people to protect the planet.” It first started out as a “lights off” event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, and it has since expanded to over 172 countries situated in various regions of the world. A core component of its advocacy is to encourage people to turn off their lights for a period of one hour between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm on a given day in the month of March every year.

I think you could make a good case that the 60 Earth Hour initiative is a good way of drawing attention to climate change, an issue of major concern to people globally. Though turning off lights for an hour may have negligible effects on energy consumption levels, the very action encourages dialogue on the need to reduce energy consumption and pushes people to commit to behavior that achieves this goal beyond the hour. It helps to sensitize people to the need for energy conservation: What is to be achieved from an hour of darkness? A Google search for this question yields answers that point to the connection between our energy use and the environment. One realizes that when they use less energy, they reduce the quantity of toxic fumes emitted by power plants and conserve natural resources.

According to Earth Hour’s website, the 2017 event was commemorated in 187 countries, where more than 3000 landmarks and monuments turned off their lights. Clearly, the Earth Hour movement has managed to reach a large number of people since its inception. The movement’s mission is an issue that touches the lives of many people across the globe. Most of us have experienced the effects of climate change in the form of long droughts, heat waves, and rising sea levels. As such, Earth Hour’s message resonates with many people. Also, technology has perhaps helped the organization to push its message more quickly across the globe.