The GREEN March
In ten days from now, on March 28 2009, citizens across the world are going to be part of the Earth Hour; a voluntary, symbolic and participatory initiative, pioneered by WWF to raise awareness for action to counter the menace of carbon footprint on the globe. On its third year, the initiative this time takes place in the backdrop of a deepening global recessionary crisis and the consequent debate whether the world can afford to undertake any green investments at this juncture.
Call the Earth Hour participation, an act of tokenism or handshake of faith, this is definitely meant to edify the movement of the fact that if the environment is ignored, it will go away.
On a razor’s edge: Despite the various efforts put in so far, in ordaining solutions and the bailout packages, the free fall in the world economy is far from being under check and the global recession is getting into deepening crisis. According to estimates, the magnitude of the rescue act is pegged at about $ four trillion or seven percent of the global GDP.
Against this backdrop, the world leaders of the G20 countries, representing 85% of the world’s output, will meet on April 02, 2009 in the London summit, to work out closer co-ordination measures to restore the global economy back on track for sustainable growth.
Paradoxically, as the world scrambles to reach a safer economic ground, the ecological debt of the human race is mounting. Climate change due to global warming is showing no sign of recovery, the rate of warming is in fact increasing. Reports published in 2007 by UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reflect a link between global warming and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from human activities. This growing climate crisis also needs mitigation, world attention, leadership and substantial investments.
With the economic crisis looming large, this has thus fueled the debate whether the world can afford to meaningfully address the climate change issues now; while the counter argument suggests that the green investments will stimulate the needed growth.
Amidst this seemingly never ending debate, the challenge will be to put policies on these two subjects together in a synergistic way. We are living on the edge and under great pressure of time on both the issues . Interestingly, there are low cost abatement options to reduce emissions and gain control over the runaway greenhouse effect.
Earth Hour: A WWF climate change initiative, Earth Hour began its journey as a one-city campaign in Sydney, Australia in 2007 pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald. On the last Saturday of March, over two million people switched off their lights for an hour.
This symbolic event is meant to encourage individuals and business communities to take simple steps like, turning off electrical appliances rather than keeping on standby to switching off non-essential lights so as to collectively make a difference for emissions control on an ongoing way.
In 2008, the lights out campaign achieved worldwide participation, with over 50 million people in 371 cities, across 35 countries from different continents flicking the switch off, in a signal of new awareness towards climate change. Notable world landmarks like the Sydney Opera House, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, Rome’s Colosseum and Bangkok’s Wat Arun Rajawarahrahm Pagoda were part of the affirmative action.
By Earth Hour 2009, individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 8:30 PM local time to show their support for action on climate change. This year Earth Hour aims to reach out to 1 billion people in 1,000 cities.
To support the cause: The Earth Hour is a global call for every individual, every business and every community for climate action initiatives. Despite its global nature, eventually the responsibility to cast vote by switching off the lights for one hour at 8.30pm on March 28 for participation, however remains a very personal decision.
Individual tokenism can work wonders as the promoters are this time trying to make this a participatory global mandate of one billion people and to take the symbolic case to the next world leaders meet at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 to agree on a post Kyoto policy of actionability on climate initiatives.
Contribution of each world citizen as an individual and in a collective capacity therefore is of extreme importance. The corporate bodies can also amass support to the cause significantly by way of implementing the advocacy agenda.
Here is to wish all success to Earth Hour 2009 – let the green march prosper from strength to strength for a safer living planet. 
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