Around 400 residents have already responded to a call by a Dubai property developer to turn off their lights at home for one hour on Wednesday, the UAE's National Environment Day.
GREAT Properties had recently sent 8,000 emails asking residents to reply “I'm going green'' if they plan a voluntary blackout to save power. An estimated 30 per cent of Dubai's power supply is sapped by the residential sector, said Nancy Atallah, Public Relations Director at GREAT.
Electricity production here depends almost totally on oil-powered machines – the process releases carbon dioxide as a by-product into the environment, and allegedly causes pollution and global warming.
Though it is not known how many residents will flip the switch on Wednesday, Atallah expects a domino effect.
“This is a viral campaign. A lot of people are aware nowadays about environmental pollution, but few take action. This is a simple way to help nature from the convenience of your own home,'' said Atallah.
“You can spend some quality family time, or come up with creative ideas to save the climate,'' she suggested people do during the self-imposed outage.
The GREAT email said its respondents will be told later how well they did on Wednesday.
