From Sydney to New York, cities around the world are participating in an event called “Earth Hour,” in a move that seeks to remind people of climate change and its impact on the planet we live on.
This mobilization around the world against global warming requires turning off the lights of cities and important sites around the world for an hour at 8:30 local time.
The Earth Hour initiative was launched in Sydney in 2007, before it developed into a huge global event.
The operation in Sydney, which turned off the lights within the framework of this initiative, began in 2007 with the aim of highlighting climate warming, combating which still requires many efforts. The famous Opera House in Sydney would then be extinguished, as would the bridge over the city’s harbor.
The world is witnessing a significant acceleration in the pace of global warming under the influence of greenhouse gases resulting largely from the combustion of fossil energy sources: gas, coal, and oil.
How much energy does Earth Hour save?
During Earth Hour, darkness descends on millions of homes and thousands of historical buildings and monuments.
These sites include the Empire State Building and the United Nations headquarters in New York, the Eiffel Tower in France, Big Ben in London, the pyramids in Egypt, the Kremlin in Moscow, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and the Alhambra Palace.
During Earth Hour in 2007 in Sydney, necessary lights remained on for safety purposes, including street lights, and energy supply companies in Australia said that this hour reduced electricity consumption by about 10.2 percent, according to a previous report by Reuters.
A study examined electricity consumption data in ten countries participating in the “Earth Hour” initiative over a period of six years, showing that turning off electricity for one hour reduced electricity consumption by an average of 4 percent.
She indicated that the initiative may not be aimed at achieving noticeable savings in electricity, but rather it shows how “purposeful behavior” measures can affect global demand for it, which is a strategy that may be useful for controlling times of crises.
The Earth Hour initiative was launched by the World Wildlife Fund and its partners in Sydney, and describes this hour as “the largest global grassroots movement for the environment.”
She says that the goal of Earth Hour is to raise awareness about protecting nature and addressing the climate crisis.
WWF encourages participants in the initiative to use Lights Out Hour to “do something positive for our planet” such as reading an article or listening to a podcast about biodiversity or climate change, spending time outdoors to reconnect with nature, or sharing information about climate change with others. Friends, family or local politicians.
The United Nations warned on Tuesday that the past decade was the hottest on record, causing glaciers to melt in an unprecedented manner in 2023.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned on Tuesday that climate change indicators will reach unprecedented levels in 2023, pushing the Earth to the “brink of the abyss,” considering that there is still time to “save” it.
The latest World Meteorological Organization report “on the state of the global climate indicates that the world is on the brink of the abyss” as “fossil fuel pollution is causing unprecedented climate chaos.”
The report confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year ever, with the average surface temperature of the planet reaching 1.45 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial revolution level.
“Every fraction of a degree of climate warming has an impact on the future of life on Earth,” Guterres said.
For her part, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Celeste Saulo, said: “Climate change is not limited to temperatures. What we witnessed in 2023, especially in terms of an unprecedented rise in ocean temperatures, the melting of glaciers, and the loss of ice floes in Antarctica, raises The biggest concern.”
While the El Niño phenomenon and other factors played a role in the unprecedented heat, scientists stressed that greenhouse gas emissions that humans continue to pump into the atmosphere are the main cause of the rise in temperature rates, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
The climate panel of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the world could exceed a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the early 2030s.
Planet-warming emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, continue to rise at a time when scientists say they should fall by about half this decade.
