Let Us Support Earth Hour 2012

Let support Earth Hour 2012

What are you willing to do to save the planet?

1) What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global initiative in partnership with WWF. Individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour to show their support for environmentally sustainable action.

The event began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. By 2010, Earth Hour had created history as the largest voluntary action ever witnessed with participation across 128 countries and every continent, including the world’s most recognized man-made marvels and natural wonders in a landmark environmental action. This was repeated in 2011.

Earth Hour 2012 will take place on Saturday 31st March at 8.30PM (local time). This Earth Hour we want you to go beyond the hour, so after the lights go back on think about what else you can do to make a difference. Together our actions add up.

Earth Hour 2012 30 Second Video

2) What does WWF hope to accomplish through Earth Hour?

Through Earth Hour, WWF will continue to educate and raise awareness about the climate crisis and offer ideas and solutions that people can merge into their daily lives.

Through Earth Hour, WWF aims to unify people’s voices from around the world who are demanding action from our elected officials to solve the climate crisis.

Earth Hour Malaysia TVC

3) How does my participation in Earth Hour help towards mitigating climate change?

Earth Hour is not a long-term solution to mitigate climate change. However, it is an important first step to generate awareness, interest and concern over the global threat of climate change. People will only be motivated to take effective action against environmental threats like climate change if they are first made aware of the issue through campaigns like Earth Hour. By signing up, you are agreeing that strong action needs to be taken to find a solution to the climate crisis.

After Earth Hour has raised public awareness about the need to combat global warming, WWF-Malaysia hopes that Malaysians, and the people of the world, will continue to demonstrate their concern about climate change by taking steps towards achieving energy efficiency and avoiding wasteful consumption.

Earth Hour at Putrajaya

Climate Witness: Jerome Robles

Mohammad Jerome Robles is 38 years old and married with 2 young boys. He works as a tour guide and operations manager, and have been working and living in Miri, Sarawak for the last 8 years.Jerome does a lot of driving from Miri to Kota Kinabalu, his hometown in Sabah, passing through Brunei. Most of the drive is along Miris coastal roads. It is alarming to see an elevated sea level

4) Do I have to turn off all of my electricity for Earth Hour?

No. Through Earth Hour we are asking people to turn off all non-essential lighting. Emergency lighting, televisions and computers can stay on for the hour. The main point of Earth Hour is to unite people, companies and governments around the world through the symbolic flip of a switch. Earth Hour in itself will not lower our carbon footprint; rather, it sends a signal to those in positions of power that we as individuals and communities demand action.

The decision on which lights to turn off can be made individually, but it usually involves shutting overhead lights in rooms (whether it is at your house or a business), outdoor lighting that does not impact safety, decorative lights, neon signs for advertising, desk lamps, etc.

Earth Hour at Dataran Merdeka

5) Will my city go completely black?

Earth Hour is not a black-out. It is a voluntary power shutdown of non-essential, decorative lighting by its participants. For businesses in city skyscrapers or for government buildings, it involves turning off the lights at the end of the business day the Friday before Earth Hour and not turning them back on until that Monday morning. So the event will be more of a fadeout to grey than an abrupt shift to black.
Lights necessary for public safety will not go out.

Earth Hour Malaysia 2009

The staronline tv crew documents the Earth Hour in two major cities in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

6) What does WWF do to reduce the effects of climate change around the world?

Around the world, WWF works with communities, governments and businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Nationally, WWF-Malaysia focuses on the following key areas:
PROTECTION OF FORESTS. Forests play a vital role in the fight against climate change. Forests are important carbon sinks and deforestation is estimated to be responsible for about 18% of current greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, forests have significant economic and ecological value by supporting biodiversity, clean water supply and local livelihoods. WWF-Malaysia helps to:

Engage businesses, especially those in the forestry and plantation sectors, to implement sustainable practices that reduce their environmental impact.
Restore forests by planting trees in degraded areas.

Advocate for the national implementation of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)
PROTECTION OF SEAS. Climate change will have a big impact on the seas. Helping them to adapt to these impacts is a key component of our work. Climate change adds additional stresses to already fragile ecosystems like coral reefs. Coral bleaching and ocean acidification are two examples. By reducing other threats and identifying factors that help coral reefs survive these impacts; we can help coral reefs to survive climate change. We do this by:

Helping to establishing marine protected areas such as Tun Sakaran Marine Park and Tun Mustapha Park, to promote natural resistance and resilience of marine ecosystems to the effects of climate change such as coral bleaching.
Working to restore natural ecosystems and full complements of predatory fish and prey species which are more resilient to changes in climate.

AWARENESS AND EDUCATION. The public needs to be made aware of climate change as well as the broader environmental issues in order to be engaged into making the necessary lifestyle changes to help the cause. WWF-Malaysia works on:

Lobbying for the incorporation of environmental education in the Malaysian formal education structure.
Engaging with local communities on sustainable natural resource management through a series of awareness programmes and activities in our project sites.

POLICY ADVOCACY. Advocacy on environmental policy has always been at the heart of WWF-Malaysia’s conservation work. WWF-Malaysia has advocated for and lobby the government on issues including standards for environmental planning and management, inclusiveness in policy making and development planning through effective civil consultation and the development of environmental and economic policies and plans that are compatible with sustainability principles. WWF-Malaysia will continue to advocate for the mainstreaming of climate change mitigation and adaptation in national policies and development plans.