Sign up for Earth Hour 2009

12.02. 2009

Encourage your club (and all your mates) to sign up for the Earth Hour 2009 today.

Stick the date in your diary pronto – Saturday 28 March – and make a note to turn off your lights and unplug appliances on ‘standby’ from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.

Earth Hour is a terrific example of how small actions can make a difference to global warming. This ‘lights out’ initiative began in Sydney in 2007 as a public awareness raising campaign (when a spectacular two million people switched off the lights) and is now an international event – in 2008 50 million people switched off their lights around the world and the target for 2009 is one billion!

So far 75 cities have said they are ready to flick the switch in 2009, including Moscow, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Rome, Manila, Oslo, Cape Town, Warsaw, Lisbon, Singapore, Istanbul, Mexico City, Toronto, Dubai and Copenhagen. Beijing has also recently announced they will participate.

Lights will be switched off at some of the world’s most best known icons including the world’s tallest building in Dubai, the Burj Dubai; the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas, the CN Tower in Toronto; Moscow’s Federation Tower; the tallest town in the Southern Hemisphere, Auckland’s Sky Tower; and our own Sydney Opera House.

Why would you bother
Earth Hour provides a unique opportunity for us to send a powerful signal that we are watching our leaders and expect action on climate change.

Executive Director of Earth Hour Global, Andy Ridley said, “Recent events have shown that the world can unite in a time of crisis. The global economic crunch is an example where, when it matters, decisive multi-lateral action by powerful nations has been shown to be achievable.”

David Miller, Mayor of Toronto and chair of the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group said, “The C40 Climate Leadership Group is about cities working together to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and that is why as Chair of the C40 I support Earth Hour. It's crucial that cities and the public come together to take action against climate change and Earth Hour provides a great platform to do that.”

Andy declared that 2009 was the planet’s ‘destiny year’, with critical decisions needed to be made at the Copenhagen meeting on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“2009 is the year we decide the future of the earth. It is the year when the world meets to agree on a plan to reduce carbon emissions across the globe. This is the time to invest in new ways of doing business in a new low carbon economy. We must all step over the line together if we are to succeed.”

What can your club do?
Earth Hour isn’t just about turning off the lights for a single hour, it’s about changing the way we operate on a daily basis. Your club has a role to play in encouraging people to consciously think about their energy consumption and to help both the club and its members use energy resources responsibly.

For more information and to sign up for Earth Hour 2009 visit www.earthhour.org