WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is organizing Earth Hour, one of the most
successful global environmental movement , on 23 Mar (Sat).
Last year, Earth Hour took place in more than 7000 cities and towns
across 152 countries with more than 5 million people participating in the
event.
This year, WWF invites organizations/ companies/ individuals to switch
off light on 23 Mar from 8.30pm to 9.30pm to raise awareness about the need to
take action on Climate change.
The official 2013 Earth Hour video is available on youtube:
Apart from Switching off light for 1 hr, WWF also initiates the “I Will
If You Will” (IWIYW) Challenge to encourage world citizens to adopt sustainable
practice beyond the hour. http://www.youtube.com/earthhour
IWIYW attracts many government officials, dignitaries, companies,
organizations etc to participate in the challenge:
e.g. The Mayor of
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will ride a bicycle from his house to office on 25 Mar,
if 50 buildings in KL will switch off for Earth Hour 2013.
Singapore Marina Bay Sands will raise its air-con by one
degree for one day every month of the year, if its top 20 vendors raise their
air-con temperatures by one degree. IKEA
Singapore will have a free reusable blue bag day if 20,000 pple pledge to use
reusable bags instead of plastic bags.
……..
In 2013, WWF organizes various
activities in different countries to encourage sustainable development.
In Singapore, WWF holds
road shows in various locations to educate the public on how to reduce energy
consumption.
WWF Singapore also
produces various Earth Hour Action Kits for schools/ companies/NGOs to
download.
The kit encourages
Singaporeans to take 4 key actions to reduce the ecological footprint of
Singapore:
1. Reduce usage of Plastic Bag
2. Turn up the air-con by 1 degree
3. Change to LED light bulbs
4. Take shorter showers
In US, WWF initiate an
“Earth Hour City Challenge” movement to encourage cities to take practical measures
to prepare for increasing impacts of climate change and promote renewable
energy. U.S. cities that participate will receive resources and gain
recognition for their efforts to curb carbon pollution and prepare their
communities for the harmful consequences of climate change.
US, WWF “Earth Hour
City Challenge”:
In China, WWF launches a
“Green V Week” campaign. The campaign encourages the Chinese population to
adopt one green action a day every week to promote sustainable living.
The recommended Green
actions are as such:
Mon: Eat More Veggie
(similar to the Meatless
Monday campaign that many countries have adopted)
Tues: Use reusable bag
Wed: Don’t Drive
Thurs: Bring your own
Chopstick
Fri: Don’t waste food
Sat: Love the animals
Sun: Walk out of the house to enjoy the Natural
surroundings
……
In recent years, there has been growing awareness on the detrimental
effects of meat production on the planet. Thus, we can observe that the
“eco-conscious people” are becoming more vocal to urge the public to reduce
meat consumption to protect the environment.
Some examples from WWF Earth Hour/ IWIYW are:
1. Green School Bali (Indonesia) Grade 7 students will organize a Green
School community beach clean up, if 1000 people will go without fast food for
one month.
2.Treehugger's
Food and Wine writer Jerry James Stone promises to go vegan for a whole month
if 1000 people do the same for a week.
3. In 2012, Nadya
Hutagalung (WWF Singapore and Earth Hour Ambassador) challenged 6 of her
husband’s friends to go vegetarian for 1 month. Her husband, in turn, challenge
60 of her twitter followers to go vegetarian for 1 month and he will cycle from
his house to the Earth Hour event.
4. In 2011, Li Bing Bing (China Star and Earth hour Ambassador) promised
to eat 100 days of veggie meals in the year to do her part in protecting the
environment:
5. WWF 2013 “Green V Week” campaign encourages the Chinese population to
“Eat More Veggies” every Monday.
It’s encouraging to see this less meat/ more veggie trend.
Let’s join in to do our part in protecting the environment. :>
