Frankly, I don't know under which katak's tempurung I must had been hiding when people elsewhere in the world turned off their lights for an hour in 2007 and 2008. I vaguely recall hearing about it after it was over, perhaps in 2008, and ignorantly thinking - what difference was it going to make switching the lights off for an hour? An hour was enough to save Earth? (yes, you may roll your eyes at me)
I understand now, that I won't be actually saving much of Earth by switching off the lights for an hour this coming Saturday at 8.30pm, but I'd be making a strong statement, with the rest of the world, on our pledge to be serious about going green. If all of Earth goes dark for an hour at precisely 8.30pm of their own respective time zones, imagine how we'd would look from space - one darkened strip at a time, advancing westward per the hours - that would be quite a sight!
I'd been looking forward to doing this all March - but then:
As a *ahem* supporter of local performing arts, I will be attending this concert. Of all the shows that there are, I somehow ended up with the tickets for:
There goes my plan to sit at home, in the dark. I wonder if the performers for Buatan Malaysia would mind singing in the dark for the first hour of the concert. Wouldn't it be grand if they'd really do that for Earth Hour? In fact, wouldn't it be very grand if all concerts around the world which happen to be on Saturday night carried on in the dark for that one hour? Ah, wishful thinking.
I'll call my mother from KLPAC at 8.25pm to remind her - LIGHTS OFF in 5 minutes!
3 comments:
Earth Hour is a mere publicity stunt
I READ with amazement and irony the efforts of WWF Malaysia to latch on to the Earth Hour event and all the celebrities, media and corporations that have come up in support.
It is amazing that people are so easily taken in by a mere publicity stunt that fails at the very essence. Turning off our lights for one hour on one designated day of the year to save our planet surely is a PR event at best.
It shames the thousands of devoted people, government bodies, scientists and environmentalists that have for years been working on finding real solutions to address this global concern. Malaysians should see past this gimmick by international NGOs and start changing their lifestyles. Surely we can be more proactive and not be fed by an agenda of international bodies.
Why don’t we implement power conservation programmes, ride public transport on certain days in a month, car pool, etc?
It is also ironic that the organiser, WWF Malaysia, up until very recently, did not even have a climate change programme to begin with when all others (even local groups and individuals) have been persistent in their pleas for Malaysians to take action.
Remember, our leaders signed the Kyoto Protocol and there has been concerted movement towards reaching solutions. Please let us all be enlightened and move away from celebrations and gimmicks.
MARCUS,
Petaling Jaya
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/25/focus/3535498&sec=focus
Thanks Anon, I saw that online yesterday. The author's got a point, but if a "publicity stunt" like this makes an ordinary person like me start making it my mission to refuse plastic bags when I go shopping, bring my own containers when buying food, and recycling all recyclables in my trash, isn't it worthwhile all the same?
A lot of people like Marcus focus on huge enviromental conservation movements and implementation of nation-wide programs. I hope he himself is someone who does or heads such initiatives. For the rest of us, we do what we can - and we become aware of the need to do what we can through "publicity stunts" such as this very publicised Earth Hour. I guess my point here is that it takes this sort of "gimmick", as in his own words, to reach the many environmentally-indifferent people in this world (and it works much better than writing to The Star online to beseech people to "ride public transport on certain days in a month, car pool, etc")
Marcus may not agree with what I'd said, but he has his 2 cents, and I am entitled to mine.
Hey ppl....the PR leading to this is HUGE. I wonder how much they spent.
*Waste money*
Yesterday I was at Starhill having my drinks and for their publicity stunt they served "eco-tini" and some other green house drinks.
I think this type of awareness should begin at school...but well sadly..it was a screwed up system. *that's another long story*
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