Earth Hour is a worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet. Engaging a massive mainstream community on a broad range of environmental issues, Earth Hour was famously started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia in 2007. Since then it has grown to engage more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide, and the one-hour event continues to remain the key driver of the now larger movement.

Earth Hour 2016 was on Saturday 19 March between 8.30PM and 9.30PM in local time zone. The event is held worldwide towards the end of March annually, encouraging individuals, communities households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet.

I don't know if all of us know why Earth Hour is celebrated mostly on the last weekend of March and at times on second-to-last weekend of March (like in 2016). I would like to share with you the reason behind it.

The second-to-last and last weekend of March is around the time of the Spring and Autumn equinoxes in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively, which allows for near coincidental sunset times in both hemispheres, thereby ensuring the greatest visual impact for a global 'lights out' event.

For last few years , I had been joining the public Earth Hour events to show my solidarity and support. But honestly speaking, it pains me to see so much of lights, decorative/neon lights, spot lights on stage, glitterings etc being used on these public Earth Hour events. I personally feel that using such heavy power lights defeats the whole purpose of promoting 'Save Energy' message through this hour. That's why since 2014, I have been celebrating Earth Hour in my own small and meaningful way.

In 2014, I had gathered around 40 students in my house (during my short vacation to India) and shared with them the meaning of Earth Hour, It's significance and simple tips to save energy. Many of them din't know about the actual message it promotes.  We all assembled with lights OFF and only candles lit. We discussed various simple ways to save energy. At the end , we took an 'Earth Hour Pledge' to save energy. Later after few days, I was glad to hear feedback from their parents that many of those students had become energy conscious at their homes.

 

In 2015, I celebrated Earth Hour by having candle light dinner with my family. We switched OFF all lights, TV and even our other gadgets like iPad, phones etc and had quality time while dining together. Then on, I requested my parents to have candle light dinner every alternate day and we have been following that till date. Every alternate day we have candle light dinner at our home. It's so much fun and a satisfaction that we are doing our bit to save energy and save Earth.

 

This year too I tried to make it meaningful in my own way. Most of you know that about an year ago, I had initiated a campaign in my building to save energy. I had been observing all /full intensity lights ON on all lobbies(all 11 floors) even during odd hours (night, early morning). I used to get disturbed seeing such wastage of energy. I spoke to my parents and our building watchman. I was so surprised to hear that there are low watt dimmers on our floor lobbies but for all these years these have neither been used nor is anyone aware of them. I took this task in my hand. I and my parents went on all 11 floors, checked these dimmers and found them working.

 Then I pasted the notice on all floors about it, arranged meeting /gathering on each of the 11 lobbies (6 homes per floor so 11x 6=66 homes in our building) to demonstrate to the residents these dimmers and to explain them that by using these dimmers from 10 pm every night  to 5 AM next morning , we would be saving energy. They all agreed with me and assured me their co-operation. Initially me and my parents used to go to all floors at 10pm to switch OFF the main lights and ON the dimmers and do vice versa next morning at 5 AM. Later watchman agreed to do so. I feel so happy that all of us are doing our bit to save energy. So this year on Earth Hour(19^th March 2016) , I switched OFF the main lights and ON the dimmers at 8.30 PM(instead of usual 10PM) on all the 11 lobbies /all floors to save energy during Earth Hour and to make Earth Hour meaningful.

Also I, as President of group 'Students for the Earth' conducted an online event titled "Celebrate Earth, Celebrate Earth Hour". Through this event, I asked participants to post their picture on our FB page . Picture of them joining Earth Hour movement by being at any Earth Hour event or even by just switching OFF the lights even at home. They were also supposed to write an Earth Hour pledge on their picture. I conducted this online event mainly to support Eco Gen's monthly event. So I told all participants to  tag   #EarthHour #ChangeClimateChange #EcoGeneration

I am posting few of the entries of my online event here......

This was my small way of giving meaning to Earth Hour. But if many of us do such small acts, they have bigger collective impact.

Save Energy, Save Earth, 

Celebrate Earth, Celebrate Earth Hour.

Earth Hour aims to encourage an interconnected global community to share the opportunities and challenges of creating a sustainable world. The way we show our solidarity to the event by switching OFF the lights for this hour, we must fulfill our responsibility to Planet Earth and try to save energy beyond Earth Hour and that's what Earth Hour Logo 60+ symbolizes. It represents a commitment to add to Earth Hour a positive act for the planet that goes beyond the hour.