This year 5 million people are expected to participate in Earth Hour. Even if the least they did was to switch of a 100 watt bulb, 100,000 homes in Africa could get food for a month. The energy the world consumes in lighting for an hour is equivalent to the carbon sequestered by almost 28 million tree seedlings grown for 10 years! Vote with your switch - turn the lights off this Earth Hour. Image Credit: Rex Features
Dubai: The end is closer than we think.
If global warming continues at its current rate, in 40 years, more than a million species of animals will disappear forever, according to the National Geographic website.
In a 100 years, large parts of coastal land, such as Florida in the US and Bangladesh, will be permanently underwater.
In 10,000 years, the Earth is expected to surrender to a severe ice age — the planet may still be here after that, but we most likely, will not.
Today, during Earth Hour, over 5 million people around the world are refusing to watch and do nothing. They are switching off their lights at 8.30pm, in an effort to create awareness about climate change issues.
Saving in numbers
In 2009, 400,000 people across the UAE participated in the global event. Dubai alone witnessed a 146,000 kilowatt-hour reduction in power consumption, according to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) website.
The success of individual endeavours adds up.
Flicking off the switch for just one hour in the city equated to taking 20 cars off the road for an entire year.
The drop also meant 88,000 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide were stopped from being released into the atmosphere.
Ida Tillisch, business development and marketing director for Emirates Wildlife Society — World Wildlife Fund for Nature, said: "Earth Hour is an important reminder of what can be done when people unite and take action… it highlights the possibilities for change, and the significance of how much energy is saved if all of us turn off non-essential lights and electricity [daily]."
The impact is even more significant in the UAE, which was ranked by the Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) as the nation with the second-highest individual carbon emissions in 2006 — it was second only to Qatar.
According to CAIT, a single resident of the UAE produced 27.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually — almost equal to the carbon emissions produced by Cuba, which has a population of over 11 million people.
When considered collectively, the UAE would need to plant 3.5 billion tree seedlings and let them grow for a period of 10 years, in order to offset the damage caused. The situation is only going to get more complicated in the future.
Business Monitor International estimates that electricity consumption per capita in the country would increase by two per cent between 2006 and 2011.
While progress and population growth are a given, Tillisch said it is essential to take the initiative to pull the plug — if only for an hour.
Being aware
She said: "The link between energy consumption and climate change is evident and people are starting to realise that everyone on the planet must use less of its natural resources if climate change is to be reversed."
Being aware of the consequences of one's actions, using electricity moderately and always opting for the eco-friendly alternative, is a crucial part of the change.
Tillisch said: "People are interested in ensuring future generations also get to enjoy life on this planet. [That's why we must] make every hour Earth Hour."
Saving on the bill
During Earth Hour, the simple action of switching off the lights in your room can help you save on your electricity bill. The easiest way to convince someone to perform an act is
to give them an incentive. What could be better than saving money?
To give you a clearer perspective, if there were 10 lamps in your home, each using a 100 watt bulb, during that one hour you could save 20 fils.
The amount may seem minuscule, but if this was adopted as a daily practice, you could save Dh73 in a year simply because you turned off the lights for an hour every day.
According to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), UAE falls amongst the countries with the highest electricity and water consumption, per capita globally.
In Dubai alone, 1,666 kilowatt hours are used per person in a month – this equals Dh333. This could be reduced if each one of us made it a habit to save an hour worth of electricity every day. A desktop computer switched off during Earth Hour may not
help to a large extent.
But, if this was a daily practice, we could save a little over Dh2 every month or Dh24.5 in a year. If you applied the same to a television set, you could save up to Dh20 in a year.
Considering you took it a step further and switched off the air conditioning for an hour as well, you’d manage to save Dh21 per month and Dh252 per year. With the money saved, you could treat yourself to a motivating dinner followed by a quick trip to the spa to reduce your stress. Also, in the one hour of lights out, you could take a walk in a
nearby park and embrace nature.
Keep in mind that the calculations listed are for one hour, every day. If we were to switch off for longer hours, paying the electricity bill would not be stressful any more.
Earth Hour 2010
Time: 8.30pm, Saturday
History
Earth Hour, to switch off sources of energy consumption for an hour, started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia and became a global phenomenon.
Its aim is to raise awareness about climate change. More than 4,000 cities and over 92 countries have signed up to take part in the campaign this year.
Pledge your support on earthhour.org, join the Lantern March in Dubai, switch off your lights or get involved in other ways.
12 things to do in the dark
- Have a barbecue with friends.
- Get hold of a telescope, invite neighbours over and try to name all the constellations.
- Catch up with a friend – have an hour-long chat on what’s new.
- Work on that health plan – go for a walk, the streetlights will stay on.
- Delve within – have an hour of meditation or praying.
- Make shadow puppets with family members. If you’re good at it, crank it up a notch and play out a script.
- Go on snooze mode – nothing better than an hour-long sleep.
- Dark room, pillow fights or monopoly in candlelight – go on, play a game.
- Take a walk around your house and see which appliances can always stay unplugged.
- Discover the photographer in you – find a perfect vantage point to capture the city observing Earth Hour.
- Moon dance – even if you are terrible at dancing, no one can see.
- Build on your general knowledge – organise a quiz with neigbours.
