28 March 2009
BEIRUT: Lebanese concerned by climate change will join the global community on Saturday in marking Earth Hour, turning off all lights and appliances for one hour in a symbolic stand against global warming. Earth Hour was started in Australia by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007, with some 2.2 million homes and businesses participating. In just three years, it has become an international event held on the last Saturday of March, where households and businesses are urged to pause their energy consumption for one hour to raise awareness on the urgency of tackling climate change. More than 84 countries will participate in Earth Hour this year, going electricity free at 8:30 pm local time, plunging whole towns, neighborhoods and iconic skylines into darkness.
WWF has announced Earth Year 2009 as the first "global election," pitting global warming against the Earth. "For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote - Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming," Earth Hour's website said. The international organization hopes 1 billion people mark the occasion and will present their "votes" to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Denmark this December, where it a landmark international agreement to fight climate change could be signed.
But not everyone is convinced that Earth Hour can make a difference. "Although well intended, things like Earth Hour ... make us believe that we are to blame for the corporate and government greed that is the catalyst for pollution," said one reluctant participant on Earth Hour's Facebook group.
There was also some skepticism in Lebanon, which experiences daily power cuts of at least three hours. Jawad, a student, told The Daily Star Friday he would not participate part. "Why should I turn off my electricity when the government already forces us to live without it every day?" Although the Lebanese endure a form of enforced Earth Hour every day, climate change is a real threat to their country. Lebanon's famous cedar trees, heavily reliant on snow and frost, were recently added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" as a "heavily threatened" species. "It's expected that within 50 years, Lebanon's snow will melt one month earlier," said Wael Hmaidan, executive director of Lebanese organization, IndyAct, citing a study by Universite de Sainte-Joseph. Speaking from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Hmaidan urged his Lebanese compatriots to participate in Earth Hour. "It's an important event, not for the amount of energy it saves, but for the awareness it raises and the pressure it puts on governments" to take immediate action on climate change, he said. Currently, Arab governments are not contributing "constructively" to negotiations on the issue. But at least a few more Arab cities are taking part this year: Abu Dhabi, Amman, Doha and Dubai have also promised to turn off their lights.
© Copyright The Daily Star 2009.
