As we all know that last Saturday of March is celebrated as Earth Hour every year. Earth Hour is a worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet, and is organised by WWF. Excessive energy consumption is one of the primary causes of global warming that is being experienced around the world. Thus, by switching off non-essential lights for an (Earth)hour, people not only aim to conserve energy but also bring awareness about the deteriorating environment around us.

It all started in 2007, with the first ever Earth Hour organized by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature in Sydney. The hour saw as many as 2.2 million residents of Sydney switch off the lights of their homes and offices in order to pledge their support to saving the environment. The trend soon caught on and several other countries participated across the globe in this initiative, which is organized by WWF each year. At present, there are 7000 cities in more than 160 countries which actively observe the hour each year.

The Earth hour is one of the most recent environmental initiatives on a global scale, but has been the most popular out of all such initiatives such as World Water Day etc. The participation in the event is voluntary. According to the local time, homes and offices switch off their lights from 20:30 hrs to 21:30 hrs in order to pledge their support for the cause. The switching off of lights is not confined to homes and offices only. Important landmarks around the world as well as important government institutions also switch off their lights in order to pledge the support of a country to the cause of environmental awareness.

The UAE has been observing the event since 2008, with involvement of all the seven emirates. This year too , it was celebrated all across the UAE with full excitement . In Dubai , there was a big celebration at Bay Avenue , near iconic Burj Khalifa while in Sharjah(another emirate/state of UAE) , it was celebrated at Al Majaz Water Front .

In Dubai, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) spearheads the event along with Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS-WWF).  As per DEWA, there are no specific energy-saving targets this year but hopefully Dubai would save up to 300,000kWh during the Hour. Last year's savings was 255,000kWh in Dubai during Earth Hour . This year's theme was "Be the change, change the climate change". This Earth Hour was marked by  Guinness World Record attempt by Dubai for the largest Earth Hour Infinity Mirror measuring 7sqm. This was a set of reflective mirrors and glass layers that created an illusion of an infinite distance. Through this DEWA conveyed its message that their efforts in conserving and generating green solutions for the generations to come are infinite.

I stay in Sharjah so I participated in Sharjah Earth Hour Event organized by The Environment and Protected Areas Authority(EPAA), in cooperation with Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority(SEWA).

I went to Al Majaz Waterfront (venue) at around 5 pm and remained there till the end of the event i.e. 9.45 pm as I was one of the volunteers. There were lots of activities there like environment quiz , interactive sessions , music performances , magic show followed by the main activity of lighting the candles to welcome Earth Hour at 8.30 pm. During Earth Hour , in Sharjah alone , the lights were switched off in 150 government and private sites, some streets and all important landmarks in Sharjah. Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) was able to save 30 MV electricity and reduced about 18 tonnes of carbon emissions in 60 minutes by participating in the Earth Hour. 

I took this opportunity to promote Tunza Eco Generation there. Soon , other Tunza Eco Generation members and ambassadors Abhinav , Humaid , Shreya and Swathy too joined me . All in all it was a fun filled event for a common , good cause.

We  wrote our environment pledge on pledge wall.

Towards the end , I thought of doing a short survey to know how many visitors there knew the actual significance or message behind Earth Hour. I asked 25 visitors(mixed nationalities , age , gender) the following questions :

Do you know what is happening here?

Do you know what is Earth Hour , what is it's significance or purpose?

What happens on Earth Hour at 8.30 pm?

I was sad to note that 15 of them replied that it's a fun fair /festival sort of event. They din't know the actual purpose or message behind it .This proves that we all environment ambassadors have a bigger role to play than mere participating in such celebrations.

Last year , I had decided NOT to be a part of big celebration rather  conduct my own small awareness session for  youngsters to tell them about Earth Hour and it's significance. Most of them did not know earlier about the Earth Hour or the message behind Earth Hour . But this year, I thought of volunteering for a big Earth Hour celebration. The survey outcome disappointed me and I have decided that next time onwards I would educate people about the meaning and purpose of Earth Hour and then , if possible  will take them with me to the celebration venue.

People all around the world celebrated Earth Hour by turning out the lights, but a long list of seemingly harmless everyday actions also contribute to emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other planet-harming greenhouse gases. Even a short e-mail is estimated to have a footprint of 4gm of CO2e (gCO2e) — including greenhouse gases produced in running the computer, server and routers and a part of their manufacture.

An e-mail with a large attachment emits about 50 gCO2e, and a spam message, not even opened by the recipient, is responsible for 0.3 gCO2e. The annual global footprint of spam is equivalent to 3.1 million passenger cars on the road in a year, using two billion gallons (7.6 billion litres) of gasoline. A web search on an energy-efficient laptop leaves a footprint of 0.2 gCO2e, and on an old desktop computer, 4.5 gCO2e. A cellphone text message comes at a cost of about 0.014 gCO2e.

A plastic carrier bag leaves a footprint of 10 gCO2e, and a paper bag 40 gCO2e.

An hour of TV watching on a 15-inch (38-centimetre) LCD screen yields 34 gCO2e, compared to 88 gCO2e on a 32-inch LCD screen, and 220 gCO2e on a 24-inch plasma screen.

Thus , it is very important that we go beyond Earth Hour and adopt such practices in our daily lives which contribute significantly to reducing the consumption of energy . We must minimize wastage of energy and water to secure a sustainable environment.

After returning from Earth Hour celebration , I wanted to make it more meaningful and wanted to extend it beyond Earth Hour so I requested my parents to switch off the lights and have candle light dinner. We had great time together even in candle lights and we as family have decided that alternate days we will have candle light dinner to save energy . This may be a small effort but small efforts lead to bigger savings & big impacts. After all what matters is making our lifestyle sustainable.

I tried sharing my thoughts/idea to wider mass thru media and glad that it is published today in "7 days" and "The Gulf Today" newspapers , below link :

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/3edba34e-6114-4eef-b08d-ed1da9f4c198.aspx

http://7daysindubai.com/beyond-earth-hour-have-a-candle-lit-dinner-to-save-energy

http://gulfnews.com/your-say/letters/salaries-don-t-match-rent-increase-1.1484243