Earth Hour 2015 - lights out illuminates Climate Change
Saturday 28th of March saw Earth Hour 2015 - a global event where everyone is encouraged to switch off their lights from 8:30pm to 9:30pm in the worlds largest grassroots movement for the environment. The Ecotourism Australia team participated by switching off their homes for the hour!
Earth Hour launched in Sydney in 2007, with 2.2 million people and 2,100 businesses participating in the ‘lights off’ event. Just one year later, Earth Hour became a global phenomenon with over 35 countries participating, and an estimated 50-100 million people (earthhour.org.au).
In the initial report released on Sunday 29th, following the event, statistics told us that 2015 saw 41,910 Earth Hour celebrations pinned on a digital map, as well as 172 participating countries and territories, close to 40 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and 1,400+ of the worlds most iconic landmarks were switch off!
"Earth Hour is a great home-grown success story: an Aussie campaign designed to draw attention to tackling global warming and get people talking about what we can do to help. In Australia, Earth Hour is something that really brings communities together, with 1 in every 3 Aussies taking part." (earthhour.org.au)
Even the smallest effort can make a difference. Here are the carbon footprints for some common everyday activities (From: sourceable.net):
- Email and Internet: Even a short email is estimated to have a footprint of 4g of CO2e (gCO2e) - including greenhouse gases produced in running the computer, server and routers and a part of their manufacture.
- Shopping: A plastic bag leaves a footprint of 10gCO2e, and a paper bag 40gCO2e.
- Drinking: A pint (473ml) of water from the tap generates 0.14gCO2e compared to 160gCO2e for a 500ml store-bought bottle. A large cappuccino comes at 235gCO2e, compared to 21gCO2e for a cup of black coffee or tea for which just enough water was boiled.
- Leisure: An hour of TV watching on a 38cm LCD screen yields 34gCO2e, compared to 88gCO2e on an 81cm LCD screen and 220gCO2e on a 61cm plasma screen. 1.6km of cycling powered by a meal of bananas would be responsible for 65gCO2e, compared to 260gCO2e for a mile powered by cheeseburgers.
To find out more about Earth Hour, click here.