Switch off for Earth Hour

8.30pm on Saturday 27th March sees the start of Earth Hour, when we are all urged to switch off unnecessary lights for an hour in support of resource conservation. Iconic buildings like the Empire State Building, Sydney Opera House and the Las Vegas Strip will go dark for an hour at 8.30pm local time. Seems like the perfect opportunity for a candlelit dinner.

Or why not go one further and switch off the TV, PC and gaming consoles too and play good old-fashioned board games or cards?

The WWF is encouraging participants to record their contribution by uploading photos to Flickr, videos to YouTube and tweeting with the hashtag #earthhour. You can find details of how to get involved here.

Climate Savers Computing is encouraging all its members to set their computer's power management settings to a more frugal setting for Earth Hour - a timely reminder that if you work in an office it's likely to be unoccupied for at least 70% of the time. Turning off computers and other office machines out of hours could reduce your energy bill as well as your carbon footprint, so reach for that off switch before you go home this weekend.

Earth Hour - spread the word!

Just under two years ago in Sydney, Australia, a global movement was born. By switching off its lights for one hour to draw attention to the issue of climate crisis, Sydney created Earth Hour. Now adopted by the WWF, Earth Hour had grown by 2008 to include 370 cities and an estimated 50 million people Worldwide; in Australia, it is claimed that 58% of adults took part. Now support is being gathered for Earth Hour 2009, which in the UK will take place from 8.30 to 9.30 pm on Saturday 28th March.

Last year my household took part, having stumbled across it thanks to Google's black screen. It was easy, it was fun, and we're planning to do it again. The WWF wants to encourage as many individuals and businesses as possible to join in and already over 680 cities from 75 countries have signed up, including my home town of Reading.

There's loads of good stuff on WWF's website, including an inspiring video and a toolkit. All you have to do is switch off your lights for an hour - but businesses that close for the weekend can make an even bigger statement by switching off from Friday to Monday. A quick look at the photos here will demonstrate just how beneficial that could be.

WWF Living Planet Report 2008

The WWF Living Planet report 2008 has been published, and provides a sobering reminder that the current economic crisis could pale into insignificance besides the consquences of continuing to live beyond our planet's resources. I found one page particularly poignant - it contrasts the ecological creditors and debtors from 1961 with the present day. I was born in 1961 so this really brings home to me the fact that so much harm has been done in my lifetime.

Debtor countries have an ecological footprint larger than their own biocapacity, and creditors exist within the limits of their biocapacity. Back in 1961 ecological creditors included the USA whose biocapacity was considered to be 50-100% larger than its ecological footprint; today its ecological footprint is considered to be 50-100% larger than its biocapacity. Other countries that have moved from ecological credit to debt include China (now at a deficit of 100 - 150%), eastern Europe and most of north Africa.

Humanity’s demand on the planet’s living resources now exceeds the planet’s regenerative capacity by about 30 per cent and at current rate of increase we will need two planets to support the World's population by the early 2030s. Despite these shocking statistics, WWF concludes that a sustainable world is not an unachievable goal: the solutions are there before us and within
our grasp given the personal and political commitment of individuals.