What did you do for Earth Hour 2016?

Earth Hour is gaining traction. Year on year more and more people are taking part and signing up to the WWF “Sign Up” form, and between the hours of 20:30 and 21:30 the lights in our cities and homes are going out in recognition that we need to reverse climate change in order to save our world. Admittedly not everyone supports the idea, the Copenhagen Consensus Center asked the question if it really did do anything to help our planet, and wrote it off to “…nothing but an ineffective feel-good event.”

Yet more and more are taking part and submitting their photos to social media and getting others to take part too. It is spreading and becoming something more and I believe that is the motivation behind it.

There can be no real impact on the earth for just ONE hour out of the whole year in a measurable globally significant emissions way, but there is an impact in that climate change is being highlighted in a visual way, and therefore conscious way. We, as individuals and collectively are responsible for what we do. We are the ones who use our fingers to turn the lights on and off and by making that connection it can and will lead t a greater awareness of other things we are doing.

Like driving the car to the shop just a short walk away, leaving the heating or air conditioner on all day, or throwing away food because it is just out of date or not what you “feel” like eating today. Even leaving your mobile charging all night when it only requires a few hours. We are taking small steps in the right direction – we are collectively realising what we are doing and that cannot be a bad thing.

The BBC has some amazing before and after pictures of big cities taking part in the event, with their lights turned on and then off during Earth Hour. So does the Daily Mail, showing the Trevi fountain in darkness and Russian Icons going dark. (The video is quite amazing…)

We are making the change, the physical impact of which we will notice as we live our lives from day to day in a more conscious way of using resources, noting that our actions can affect the world around us and the is a measurable option.

To find out more about Earth Hour, go to the WWF website. If you missed out this year, join up next year, but better still, rather take the movement to heart. Do you need to run everything all day? Would you be better off walking to the shop and back rather than taking the car and perhaps charge your phone from when you get home till you go to bed, then turn the charger off, so it doesn’t sit wasting energy all night connected to a fully charged phone. These few realisations that we make today will affect how we act tomorrow.

That then, is what will really affect climate change globally as we collectively do the same.