Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour. This is to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.  This event actually asks us to think about what else we could be doing to make a difference to save our Earth. 

On the 24th of March, 2018 my group and I went for Earth Hour Dubai. Various environmental friendly activities and umpteen number of food stalls were put up. By visiting the Earth Hour event organized by Dubai Electricity and Authority, I reinforced my passion towards sustainable living.

Firstly, Earth Hour is more than just an hour:

One of the biggest misconceptions of Earth Hour is that it?s only for an hour. But over the years I have experienced and realized that it?s not just the one hour. Earth Hour is a global movement that aims to harness the power of the crowd to achieve concrete environmental impact. This is represented in the Earth Hour 60+ logo, where the ?+? signifies climate action that extends beyond the symbolic lights out event. Once I had participated in my first Earth Hour I felt like doing it more often and this was the whole point of the event, to save electricity and power throughout the year, whenever possible and not just for that one hour.

Secondly, this global event can reduce the global warming on a larger scale. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth. The average temperature of planet Earth has gone up by 0.7 degrees Celsius over the past century. For us this may not sound like much, but in our body this would cause us to feel ill. The burning of coal could release enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise the temperature of the planet.

Lastly, we can also save the energy of electricity consumption. By saving energy, the power station that generates electricity to power our house doesn't have to generate as much energy. Currently, the main method of generating energy is burning coal, gas or oil, which produces a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So, power stations don?t need to burn too much coal, gas or oil for us to use. In the process, less carbon dioxide is given off and lesser carbon dioxide means slower global warming.

There are simple things we can do to mark this hour but one should follow it not just one day but every day.

Whenever we go for any environment friendly work one question mostly lurks in our mind whether our individual actions truly make a difference. If you choose to recycle, compost, carpool, reduce consumption and refuse plastic bags, does it have an effect? 

Yes, it does have an effect. Human beings have brought our earth to such a disaster not single-handedly but together this mess was created. So our actions have to be cumulative. We must fix it together both by changing our behaviour as individuals and by demanding change from corporations and government.

To conclude, we should definitely take part in the Earth Hour event. It increases awareness about climate change that will help reduce our carbon footprint. By switching off everything for at least one hour, we can help ease pollution and energy consumption. Earth Hour cannot solve all the problems Earth is currently facing, but it sure can help reduce the intensity of them and get people used to eco- friendly practices.