Earth Hour Saturday: Believing Together

Today is the last Saturday of March and the whole

world unites to observe the Earth Hour event. I believe that people come together for a cause because
they share the belief in it. Earth Hour, for instance, is a belief they share about the fact that we have got to
save what houses us. Humanity owes life to this planet. That’s a reason big enough to come together and
do our bit towards keeping Earth as beautiful and lively as it should be.

Earth Hour Event: Collective Beliefs

There is something about collective believing like the Earth Hour event that has fascinated me since
childhood. I remember how watching thousands of believers reading the namaaz on the day of Eid used
to excite me. It still does.

A teacher in school once told us about this concept of collective believing in a quite simple way. She
taught us that prayers always help. When we pray, we expect God to hear us. So, if we really want to
make sure that he heeds to our prayers, we must get together and voice our concern in a united way.
Nobody asked any question, probably because that made total sense.

International Earth Hour: Purpose and Importance

Earth Hour is not just an event. It is a statement that the world makes to itself. That’s why questions like
‘why earth hour’ (recognizing the importance of earth hour and understandng the purpose of earth hour)
are more important than “when is earth hour.” Earth Hour is a realisation. Earth is changing. If we want
this change to be for the better, we need to change. Switching off for now.

Posted in World.
Tagged with 60 earth hour, belief, Change, collective believing, earth hour 2010, earth hour event,earth
hour Saturday, importance of earth hour, international earth hour, purpose of earth hour, switch
off, whens earth hour.
1 comment
By Ankit Chadha – March 27, 2010

Earth Hour Live

Tonight, millions of people are joining together, and turning off their lights to help make a
difference and raise awareness about the issue of global warming. See how the world is taking
part, with these live news feeds and images from participating cities. Don't forget to share
your Earth Hour moments too. Remember - turn off your lights!

Earth Hour symbolizes the renunciation of industrial civilization.

Photo

NASA

On Saturday, March 28, cities around the world will turn off their lights to observe "Earth
Hour." Iconic landmarks from the Sydney Opera House to Manhattan's skyscrapers will be
darkened to encourage reduced energy use and signal a commitment to fighting climate
change.
While a one-hour blackout will admittedly have little effect on carbon emissions, what
matters, organizers say, is the event's symbolic meaning. That's true, but not in the way
organizers intend.
We hear constantly that the debate is over on climate change--that man-made greenhouse
gases are indisputably causing a planetary emergency. But there is ample scientific evidence
to reject the claims of climate catastrophe. And what's never mentioned? The fact that
reducing greenhouse gases to the degree sought by climate activists would, itself, cause
significant harm.
Politicians and environmentalists, including those behind Earth Hour, are not calling on
people just to change a few light bulbs, they are calling for a truly massive reduction in
carbon emissions--as much as 80 percent below 1990 levels. Because our energy is
overwhelmingly carbon-based (fossil fuels provide more than 80 percent of world energy),
and because the claims of abundant "green energy" from breezes and sunbeams are a
myth--this necessarily means a massive reduction in our energy use.
People don't have a clear view of what this would mean in practice. We, in the industrialized
world, take our abundant energy for granted and don't consider just how much we benefit
from its use in every minute of every day. Driving our cars to work and school, sitting in our
lighted, heated homes and offices, powering our computers and countless other labor-saving
appliances, we count on the indispensable values that industrial energy makes possible:
hospitals and grocery stores, factories and farms, international travel and global
telecommunications. It is hard for us to project the degree of sacrifice and harm that
proposed climate policies would force upon us.
This blindness to the vital importance of energy is precisely what Earth Hour exploits. It
sends the comforting-but-false message: Cutting off fossil fuels would be easy and even fun!
People spend the hour stargazing and holding torch-lit beach parties; restaurants offer
special candle-lit dinners. Earth Hour makes the renunciation of energy seem like a big
party.
Participants spend an enjoyable sixty minutes in the dark, safe in the knowledge that the
life-saving benefits of industrial civilization are just a light switch away. This bears no
relation whatsoever to what life would actually be like under the sort of draconian carbon-
reduction policies that climate activists are demanding: punishing carbon taxes, severe
emissions caps, outright bans on the construction of power plants.
Forget one measly hour with just the lights off. How about Earth Month, without any form
of fossil fuel energy? Try spending a month shivering in the dark without heating, electricity,
refrigeration; without power plants or generators; without any of the labor-saving, time-
saving, and therefore life-saving products that industrial energy makes possible.
Those who claim that we must cut off our carbon emissions to prevent an alleged global
catastrophe need to learn the indisputable fact that cutting off our carbon
emissions would be a global catastrophe. What we really need is greater awareness of just
how indispensable carbon-based energy is to human life (including, of course, to our ability
to cope with any changes in the climate).
It is true that the importance of Earth Hour is its symbolic meaning. But that meaning is the
opposite of the one intended. The lights of our cities and monuments are a symbol of human
achievement, of what mankind has accomplished in rising from the cave to the skyscraper.
Earth Hour presents the disturbing spectacle of people celebrating those lights being
extinguished. Its call for people to renounce energy and to rejoice at darkened skyscrapers
makes its real meaning unmistakably clear: Earth Hour symbolizes the renunciation of
industrial civilization.
 
In the past decade, it has been called everything from the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind” to
the “greatest challenge to face man”. There have been conventions, coalitions, and conferences held in
its name. Hundreds of politicians have discussed, debated and even come to agree on possible solutions
armed with which we might stand and face its impending challenge. Thousands of scientists have
released studies, statements, and reports documenting its harmful and possibly even apocalyptic
consequences for all of the world’s biodiversity. Millions of people have individually altered their own
lifestyles and together they have walked and run and biked in fierce protest. The issue at hand is climate
change, and it has literally and figuratively taken every corner of our world by storm. People are
increasingly aware that this environmental threat could be the defining issue of our time. 

In the face of this global challenge, older generations are coming to the table to work towards a remedy.
However, in energy, productivity, and creativity an ever-growing youth movement has eclipsed their
efforts. Self-mobilized youth around the world are currently pursuing just and sustainable solutions to
global warming with the maturity and sense of urgency necessary in these pressing times. 

We at TakingITGlobal believe it is these youth who have the power to mitigate the forces set in motion by
our industrialized societies. With the proper resources and guidance, the bureaucracy that currently
hinders international climate policy will be avoided, and an opportunity to discover honest and efficient
political solutions will ensue. With feasible intergovernmental ratifications made concerning global
warming, domestic efforts will be far more efficient. Inspired and led by youth, our global community will
solve the problem that has already inspired so much adversity around the world. 

But it all begins with youth taking advantage of the multitude resources available in order to rally peers
and make a difference. TakingITGlobal’s climate change page is a fantastic way to learn all about this
paramount issue and simultaneously about the rest of the youth movement and possible roles within it.
Learn about what others are doing and get inspired to take action by either starting or joining a local
project. Our Climate Change Youth Guide to Action is there to help, every step of the way. 
In the end, global youth have all of the evidence they need to inspire action. All that is needed now are
the diplomatic and policy-building tools that will complement the amazing energy and creativity of these
youth, enabling them to help tackle the environmental and ensuing social challenges the world currently
faces. 

This is about survival. And while we are in this together, younger generations possess the clarity, the
vision and the imperative to help save this planet. We hope that TakingITGlobal is one of many platforms
that support those on the journey towards unifying our growing world and repairing the damage we have
done, in the interests of both present and future generations of life. (wiki)