“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope."- Wendell Berry. This quote says all about the movement Earth Hour; it is a movement for the planet planned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and observed over the entire world. Earth Hour engages a huge mainstream society on a broad range of environmental issues. This movement is also popularly called as the lights- off event which was at first started in Sydney, Australia in 2007. The movement encourages turning off their non-essential lights for the hour and many individuals, communities, households and businesses follow this as a mark for their contribution towards saving planet. And from then it has grown to connect more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide. The event is held world over and mostly in last week of March annually, Earth Hour 2014 is scheduled for Saturday, March 29, from 8:30 pm-9:30 pm, participants' local time.
Why all of sudden in past few years this movement got popularity is because there has been how the drastic changes in all fields had its impact on the climatic conditions and natural beauty. The scenic beauty of nature which used to give a soothing effect to eyes and comfort to heart are now lost amid the mostly advancing world. But it’s our duty to protect it as we keep our home away from adverse effects of environment. What our ancestors enjoyed the benefits of atmosphere, is now lost in today’s generation because we are not able to protect our surroundings. It is well quoted by Buckminster Fuller that "We are on a spaceship; a beautiful one. It took billions of years to develop. We're not going to get another. Now, how do we make this spaceship work?" Though we are advancing in many commands & streams we need to pause, think for our planet home and protecting it from all sorts of risks is the duty of every individual living on it. One such moment to preserve our planet is an Earth Hour. We at times don’t realize that each small contribution from each and every one can save a lot of energy in turn saving our ecosystem.
Now a major question which pops in our mind is does this one hour of electricity saving can really bring any difference?