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Few days to the 27th of March and its Earth hour. The whole country is taking part in this global initiative to spread awareness about the scarse of resources on our planet Earth.
No matter how romantic the idea of saving the planet may sound, saving energy for one hour won’t make the Earth problems go away! But still, it must be feeling good to participate with the whole world at the same time in joint efforts to show your concerns about the planet; it is a reminder to everyone that we are over utilizing Earth’s resources; both on individual and group levels (whether this group is government, companies, etc.) A reminder that we should really re-evaluate our resources consumption approaches.
I am glad to see that the country and many of its government and private sector companies are taking part of this initiative, although the question ‘How?’ remains a mystery! In all cases, I really hope to see those tall business buildings with their many offices and those banks (especially banks!!) which leave their lights on all day and night for decoration purposes turning their lights off (I really hope they can do that every day, not only for an hour!!!)
Moreover, on a personal level, I am planning to participate in this hour. Bringing such topic into family discussions will definitely lead to some insights on how we are consuming resources available to us, in addition to give the children at the family a hint or two on how they should be dealing with those resource in a responsible manner. After all, we are really leaving them with a horrible legacy!
And for those of you living in Jeddah, you may want to have a look at this initiative named ‘Earth Hour Jeddah.’ There is a number of good hints on how you could participate and show you participation thereafter. Just do not forget to hear the lovely podcast of Nesreen and her guest Sharifah, the mastermind behind ‘Earth Hour Jeddah.’
So … Are you in?
We usually have an excess of electrical devices plugged in, humming along even though we don’t need them. Compared to 10 years ago, many of these devices are much more efficient, but they still use electricity. Maybe turning off the lights and all extra gadgets off for one hour show that they don’t actually need all those lightning there all the time, or they don’t need to have the computer running 24/7.
The best part is that this year, they are doin it here on a much bigger scale.
😀
Here’s to hope
Hi Muneeb and welcome to the blog …
That’s an interesting look at one of the Earth hour benefits; we do not need these all day working gadgets around us!!
We do have a cut in electricity from time to time, is it enough to not to participate in this … because I will not be at home at this time and I don’t think my family will switch off the power for any reason.
However, it’s really a very nice idea and better than this when we always switch off the power source if it’s not required…
Hi Mustafa … glad to see you in the blog 🙂
So what you are telling me is that you have many Earth hours by year :), that must be good, and I believe those who have repeated electricity cut offs should be really aware of the extreme importance of energy; the only thing is that they are learning it the hard way 😉
Saad, thank you very much for posting this on your blog. You are really helping the cause just by publishing this and reaching out to your readers. And thank you for showing interest.
Alsulami is right. We already observe our earth hour here in Jeddah, with the power cuts that we didn’t ask for, and even during prayer times throughout the Kingdom, when all shops turn off all their non-essential lights at least 4 times a day for 30 minutes each to go and pray.
Whether or not you participate in the event by turning off your lights on that hour is really your choice. We respect your choices, of course.
It is important that we make it clear that our goal here is not to save energy for one hour and then solve the world’s energy problem after this one hour, because that is not going to happen.
Our main goal here is to let people know that there is a problem, and to let people start talking about it, discussing what solutions will work, or will NOT work. The Earth Hour is the first step.
Whether or not you turn off your lights during the Earth Hour, you have still contributed to the cause by discussing the topic.
And for that, we thank you. 🙂
Hey Nessreen …
I should be thanking you, and all the minds behind ‘Jeddah Earth Hour Blog,’ for the great efforts in promoting this event. I really hope it will turn out as a huge success. Actually, the Earth Hour is already a success in Saudi this year; it is the first time, as far as I remember, that we have been exposed to the idea in a similar way. I mean there were a number of media coverages, many … many emails and tweets related to the event, and number of blog posts or a dedicated blog as in your case.
Good Luck Nessreen 🙂