Earth Hour Day Overview

Instructions

• 1

  Information about Earth Hour Celebrations:
  Earth Hour is celebrated across the world on last Saturday of March from 8:30 am to 9:30 am according to local times. The event was originally organized by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and now it’s celebrated at individual and group levels throughout the world.
  
  
  What is Earth hour all about?
  Earth Hour is all about changing our attitudes in order to attain sustainable life, better climate and a safe future for our generations. It started in a single city and within 5 years 5200 cities from 135 countries involved in the movement. It’s not just about switching off lights for one hour, but making it a habit not to misuse and over use the energy resources in daily routine.
  
  Although the theme of the event is ‘turning off electronic appliances’, with expansion in the framework the ‘economic living’ is being introduced as a core concept.
  
  

  
• 2

  History of Earth Hour:
  
  
  Who started it:
  
  The World Wide Fund and The Sydney Morning Herald first appreciated this idea in 2007, when approximately 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated in this grand event by turning off all the non-essential lights of their homes and businesses. Later on, this global phenomenon spread across the globe just like a fire.
  
  
  Expansion:
  
  In 2008's  event, there were about 400 cities which celebrated Earth Hour. In 2009 the event was supported by 80 million people from around the world and in 2010 the participants grew above 100 million. More and more cities started participating and 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries across the world switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011 alone.

  
• 3

  Earth Hour Statistics & Facts:
  
  In 2007, 2.2 million people participated in the event. This was the first event of the series conceptualized by the Sydney Morning Herald.
  
  
  The energy demand was minus 500,000 kilowatt per hour, during the event in Vietnam in 2010.
  
  
  Famous buildings including Big Ben London, The Empire State Building New York, The Sydney Opera House, Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Greece’s The Parthenon, The Brandenburg Gate Berlin, The Forbidden City in Beijing, Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur and the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt turned off their lights for one hour to celebrate the event.
  
  
  In 2008, Amalienborg Palace and Gråsten Palace, the Danish Royal Palaces went dark on Queen's command.
  
  
  In 2009 and 2010, the National Geographic Channel Asia suspended its broadcasting from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
  
  
  Cartoon Network also suspended their broadcast for an hour in 2009 and 2010.
  

  
• 4

  Earth Hour Activities & Campaign Ideas:
  Earth hour is about efficient use of energy, and there’re various ways you can do so. Check out the list of activities below for kids, young ones, students, businesses and everyone else.
  
  1- Try candle-lit exercise or yoga; Light a candle or use the moon light to take advantage of this moment for appreciating the beautiful world we all share and do an exercise or yoga. This simple activity is has two basic advantages; it saves energy and help you to pursue a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle.
  
  
  2- Conduct an unplug jam session at your place; Invite your friends, colleagues, and other family members at your place, switch off the light along with your mobile phones, and enjoy some in-house music. You can dance as well to boost your energy level. Gossip based on Earth hour will increase your knowledge regarding energy conservation and can help make the time go faster, too!
  
  
  3- Read a bed time story; One easy thing for parents or elder family member to do during Earth Hour is to call all the kids to join you in the bed for a story session. Now, turn off the lights of the bedroom to create a cozy atmosphere and switch over their favorite bedtime story into a thrilling journey of the imagination.
  
  
  4- Hurry up! Fill up your freezer; Unknown to many of you, an empty freezer consumes more energy than a filled one. Therefore, if you have an empty space in your deep-freezer or freezer, just fill it with juices, fruits, vegetables, water bottles etc.
  
  
  5- Make sure to fix all the drafts; You can help spread Earth Hour awareness by covering or repairing all the drafts around your home, as they are the main reasons why the heating and cooling bills go up.
  
  
  6- Turn down the heat; If you are living an area with a cold climate and have the heat on all the time, Earth hour is the best excuse to turn the heat down for one hour.
  
  
  7- Unplug all your electric appliances; It is an Earth Hour, so get up, and start powering down all the electric appliances of your home like, microwave, juicers, blenders etc.
  
  
  8- Unplug the digital watches or wall clocks; It will take hardly few seconds to reset your digital watches or wall clocks at the end of the Earth hour. Therefore, unplug as many digital wall clocks and watches as you can in order to save a few valuable dollars in energy costs.
  
  
  9- Unplug your phone accessories; Another best thing you can do during the Earth Hour, unplug your cell phone’s charger, adaptor, battery re-charger etc.
  
  
  10- Shut down your computer for one hour; Did you know that an idle computer consumes lot of energy? Yes! The funky and colorful screen savers consume hell of energy even if you are not using it. Make sure to switch your computer off properly if you are not using it and save money at the end of each month.
  
  
  11- Switch off night-lights and lamps; Dedicate one hour to our lovely Earth and unplug all the night-lights and lamps of your house for just one hour. It will convey your love message to you Earth.
  
  
  12- Bring back your romance during Earth Hour; An Earth Hour is a perfect excuse to conduct a candle light dinner with your loved ones. Decorate a nice dinner table prior to Earth hour, switch off all the lights around the moment Earth hour starts and lit candles to create the most romantic evening of your life. Enjoy the Earth hour along with a romantic dinner!
  
  
  13- Conduct Earth Hour School Activities; Never make the mistake to overlook the children on the great occasion of Earth Hour as they are the upcoming generation who have to play their role in saving the Earth. It is better to train them today to get positive output from them in upcoming days. Make discussion groups of the students of your school according to their age group and ask them to share their views regarding environmental issues we're facing. In addition to that, you can conduct art competition, games, and essay writing competitions to polish their hidden abilities regarding environmental issues.
  

  
• 5

  Earth Hour Results:
  With celebrating Earth hour the expected result is to move toward efficient use of energy, which leads towards saving money, better environment and an easy life. Earth Hour celebrated in various parts of the world has shown 10% to 30% decline in the energy consumption, which if implemented in our daily routine can do wonders!
  
  Earth Hour is not necessarily to be celebrated on last Saturday of March; instead your every hour can be Earth Hour. Just turn off the lights while you’re going out of the room, keep your AC at normal temperature, use energy savers, avoid washing clothes with hot water etc. These are just few hints; you can do a lot more!