Earth hour

Today marks a very interesting event that is really helpful to the world that we live in. Its none other than Earth Hour. And this year Earth hour is today 29 Mar 2009, from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. I just read that this event was started in Sydney in 2007 and now many other countries have followed Sydney's suite, turning the event into a yearly world event that will be held on the last saturday of March. For this event, organisations, homes, countries, icons etc are encouraged to switch off their lightings at 8.30 pm, for a total of 1 hour. Given the huge population of the world now, the amount of energy that the world is using up is super, so this not only helps to cut down the energy used up by the world for that 1 hour, it also drives across the message for every country and individual to do his part to help save our Earth. From the news, I hear that about 82 countries ans 2100 cities have already pledged to contribute to this great cause, and many iconic buildings and monuments (including the Sydney Oprah House and the Beijing Birds' nest stadium) will join in to drive the message across to the world population. Singapore is also stepping up its role in this event this year. This year more than 500 companies, government organisations, shopping centres and monuments will participate in the event (I think its about 500, from the list it looks like about that number). I personally think this is a very very good move. It is important for everyone to understand his role towards the health of the world. Switching off just one light bulb might not save a lot of energy, but when 10000000 people switch off 1 light bulb each, the amount of energy saved is really unimaginable. Not only does this conserve energy, it will also greatly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emission. I, for one will definately take part in the exercise tonight, and I also urge everyone else to do the same. The lights will only be off for 1 hour, I'm sure you won't die because of 1 hour withour TV, Lights and air-con. But what I want to bring forward is also for everyone to carry on the effort to save energy. Don't let this be just a 1 hour event, whenever and wherever possible, switch off your electrical appliances to conserve the energy. Let us do our part to help alivate the pain on our planet. Kudos to the world.

Some interesting facts about Earth Hour:
- Started in Sydney in 2007
- Held on the last Saturday of March every year
- The first city to start Earth Hour in 2009 is Chatham Islands, New Zealand
- Dubai is the first Arab city to pledge to participate in Earth Hour
- In 2008, Google gave Earth Hour free publicity. The Google homepage in the United States, Colombia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland and the UK was turned to a black background. Their tagline is, "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour." But Google has stated that they will not repeat this in 2009.


Ok I got all my information online, example wikipedia, so I'm not responsible if I accidentally mistype any information. Anyway if you're interested to know more about this great event, please go google it.