Monday, March 30, 2009

Earth Hour

I've been rather busy lately, but I still want to make a statement before it's too late and things fade from our rather stunted memory. Earth Hour was held across the world this Saturday between 8:30pm and 9:30pm local time. I felt the buzz in the air this year, a buzz I hadn't felt last year, or the year before that. To be very honest, I didn't know of it's existence till last year. This year, however was different. Governments around the world endorsed the event. Institutions and individuals alike pledged allegiance to the cause.

On my part, I decided that I too would play my role in publicizing the event. I made a few leaflets and pasted them around IIT, only to be pleasantly surprised that the official posters had beat me to most locations. I also distributed a few of them around my house, not without animated discussions with guards which involved the word "paryavaran". I daresay that word is a mouthful when it comes to using it in everyday conversation. All in all, by the time Earth Hour came around, I was happy that I had played my small role in spreading the word. The pleasant surprises kept coming all day long. Right from the morning newspaper which gave the event unprecedented coverage, appeals from the Government and then the news that IIT would officially observe Earth Hour.

Ironically enough, there was a freak, unpredictable thunderstorm exactly the same day that a billion people around the world acknowledged the global climate crisis. The freak shower was probably to underline the problem to those who didn't accept it. I remember remarking to a friend of mine, "This is God's way of telling us that he'd shut off even our essential lights if we dared to not shut off our non-essential ones!".

All in all, Earth Hour was a grand success this year and one can only hope we move from strength to strength in tackling this issue. For those of us who didn't observe Earth Hour, I wish they wake up. Soon.

7 comments:

Old soul said...

i heard it for the first time too this year...and okay, i'm happy to have done my bit(and therefore i am announcing it on ur blog!)...

but i was a little disappointed and taken aback by the variety of responses i got from ppl.for one, we were the only people in the colony to switch off our lights. and there are lots of kids in my colony. i had expected school kids to be most excited about it.
when my brother put it up as his status msg on FB, most of his friends teased him about it. one even asked him if he had caught the firangi obsession for showing off and 'stupid gestures' from his foreign-returned sister!

i think somewhere in the media hype and the publicity stunts (which were great by the way..i recognise the power of aggressive publicity) people still could not put into perpective what switching off lights for one hour could do. talking closer to home, my brother only agreed when i did some back-of-the-envelope calculations for him to show what 600MW of electricity saved means...and how much more electricity could have been saved if even more family in each colony had participated...

Wanderer said...

Nevermind really...if you got one person to do it, the others will come around when it lands on their head...

Mallika said...

It was probably one of the most fun times that I had, going about each room to spread the message and shouting at a few juniors(which probably I should'nt have done).For most having a blackout was a thing out of the mundane.It was time for revelry in the entire hostel.I just wished they would probably understand the graver issues that need to be addressed.
However I look forward to this initiative again.

Manav said...

Haha, I've been doing this for the last two years, and I really like it, but I can't help noticing that how a lot of people who do this (this is NOT a reference to anybody here) also are those who keep lights/ACs/Laptops/Comps running throughout the night, and how, at the end of the day, this is just an empty gesture for them, no?

Wanderer said...

True. But atleast a recognition of the problem. Things will catch on

Aditya Raghuwanshi said...

it should be renamed to Mankind Hour...cuz whatever happens...nature has a way of correcting itself...disastrously or otherwise...it's only us that we're gonna be saving...

for the record...i did observe earth hour...(although the downstairs neighbor did come asking if we'd lost power connection as they were getting electricity without any problem)

Wanderer said...

hehe that would've ideally been a good time to 'enlighten' them :P