Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Source: my.hsj.org
On March 27, hundreds of millions of people gathered around the world, in 88 countries and 4000 cities, to protest global climate change by participating in Earth Hour, the world’s largest global climate change initiative.
During Earth Hour, people and businesses turn off their lights in homes and businesses for one hour starting at 8:30 p.m. and ending at 9:30 p.m. local time. This takes place on the last Saturday of every March, due to the fact that it is around the time of the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere and the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere, allowing for similar sunset times, which create a greater visual impact for global "lights out."
Earth Hour is a massive effort that began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 when 22 million businesses turned off their lights, and this year included the participation of several major global landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Coliseum in Rome, and the Sydney Opera House.
In Northern Illinois alone, the act of turning off the lights for one brief hour kept 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Public utilities, like heating and electric companies, were responsible for 36.3 percent of total carbon emissions last year and by turning off the lights for Earth Hour, the amount of carbon dioxide released by electric companies is drastically cut.
"It was a really simple way for me to help the environment and make a small difference" said junior Kendall Smith, who participated in the initiative.
While Earth Hour is an incredibly large initiative, its cousin Earth Day is far larger as it is celebrated by more than 500 million people in 125 countries. Earth Day was founded by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 and has since expanded at an incredible rate.
Earth Day is celebrated every April 22 in honor of the movement to save the environment, and in some places people even celebrate Earth Week which ends on Earth Day. Many people all over the world celebrate through pledges to help reduce pollution and litter, by writing letters to senators and congressmen, planting trees, or even just going for a walk and enjoying nature.
The issue of Earth’s environment has recently exploded, as it is now one of President Obama’s top priorities to stop America’s dependence on foreign oil and develop earth friendly alternative energy sources that are earth-friendly.
Environmentalist sentiments have also invaded movie theatres: first in Al Gore’s famous 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth and more recently the world wide blockbuster and Academy Award nominee Avatar.
In the movie Avatar, an indigenous population is fighting against those who wish to destroy the beautiful nature of their planet. Sound familiar?
Almost the exact same destruction is taking place in the last remaining rainforests as logging companies and farmers cut down trees and destroy the homes of animals and indigenous people that have made those forests their homes for hundreds of years.
Recently, several members of different indigenous groups from Ecuador traveled to the nation’s capital of Quinto to see the hit movie and were able to closely identify with it. One member said it was "very, very good to be able to reflect and see that the basis of the struggle is not sporadic, but rather a deep struggle—a struggle for the dreams of our ancestors."
In 2008 alone 11,968 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were cleared away in order to make way for farming. At this rate, the Amazon rainforest will be reduced by 40 percent in two decades.
Bear Creek recently hosted the Alliance for Climate Education, which presented the grave message that unless our generation takes action against global climate change, the future of the Earth is uncertain.
The temperature is rising, the forests are falling, and the solutions are far too often ignored. It’s time to take the initiative—plant a tree, ride your bike instead of driving, or simply pick up that empty cup that’s been sitting in the gutter. It’s the combination of small acts like these that will, quite literally, save the earth.