People Power puts Sydney in the Black!
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On Saturday evening the 31st of March 2007, between 7.30 and 8.30pm the people of Sydney took part, in overwhelming numbers, in what may come to be seen as a momentous occasion.
On Saturday evening the 31st of March 2007, between 7.30 and 8.30pm the people of Sydney took part, in overwhelming numbers, in what may come to be seen as a momentous occasion.
They turned their lights off! Yes, that’s it! A simple, unselfish, no-cost action by hundreds of thousands of people made a statement to which the world will listen.
Earth Hour, an event organised by WWF, saw an unexpected avalanche of support when as many as 2.2 million Sydneysiders switched off their lights.
"It gives you a lot of hope about humanity," said Andy Ridley, a spokesman for WWF.
Energy consumption fell over 10 percent in the CBD alone, creating a saving of almost 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere - the equivalent of taking over 48 thousand cars off the road for one hour.
WWF is now commited to holding more regular Earth Hour events and to taking the concept internationally. The WWF’s idea for next year’s Earth Hour is that, viewed from space, we would be able to see darkness cascade over the planet, as lights go out in a domino effect.
Of course, the darkness was not total and was not meant to be, lights are essential for safety. The goal was to have all unecessary lighting and equipment turned off.
However, the real mission of Earth Hour is to cause us to think carefully about the issues associated with global warming, and to take some positive and personal steps toward change.
With an initial commitment by only 65,000 households and a healthy number of businesses in the CBD to take part, organisers were stunned as suburb after suburb spontaneously plunged into near darkness. And as people celebrated the event by turning off their televisions and gathered on harbour foreshores, not for the usual fireworks display, but to see their iconic city in a very different way.
The level of darkness was essentially irrelevant – Earth Hour was about awareness and education, in the hope that turning off unnessesary lights and appliances will become common place, the norm - not just for one hour, but every day.
It’s from small seeds that trees are grown, and the news of Sydney’s trip into the dark side was reported around the world.
The goal of organisers is to see Sydney’s green house gas emissions reduced by 5% this year, and for the habits of a lifetime to be gradually, but inevitably changed. It won’t be easy, but if Earth Hour 2007 is any indication, it’s an idea whose time has come.