GET ready to turn off your lights – literally.
Earth Hour is on this Saturday 29 March, from 8.30-9.30pm.
Earth Hour is a worldwide movement for the planet organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature which started as a lights-off event in Sydney in 2007.
Since then it has grown to engage more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide, and the one-hour event continues to remain the key driver of the now larger movement. The event is held worldwide, encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet.
This year Australians are being urged to join a community gathering to watch a remarkable, world-premiere Earth Hour documentary about the Great Barrier Reef and climate change, before turning off their lights at 8.30pm to make a stand for its future.
The Australian focus this year is on the Great Barrier Reef, which environmentalists say is at a turning point.
“If we don’t act now, the effects of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef will be irreversible in just over a decade,” said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, one of the world’s leading experts on the reef and a professor of marine science at the University of Queensland.
“The scientific consensus has concluded that further increases in CO2 and average global temperature are almost certain to destroy the coral communities of the Great Barrier Reef for hundreds if not thousands of years. Losing the Great Barrier Reef for even a few years, let alone thousands, surely demands more attention from all of us.”
The special reef documentary that will screen at many community gatherings will also be shown at 4.30pm on Channel Ten.
***SIDEBAR ***
Lights out in the Hastings
THE Hastings branch of Climate Change Australia is hosting a gathering at the Port Uniting Church, at the corner of Sherwood Rood and Oxley Highway in Port Macquarie.
The event will feature a candlelit dinner and fun quiz. The cost is $30 a head and proceedings will kick off at 6.30pm. Attendees are asked to book immediately and to bring a torch and non-alcoholic beverages with them on the night.
For more information visit http://earthhour.org.au/events/port-macquarie-uniting-church-port-macquarie-nsw/
Amy from Wauchope Community Arts has also organised an event at the Community Arts Hall in Bain Park, Wauchope.
The event will include a screening of the documentary and a candlelit dinner.
Proceedings will also kick off at 6.30pm. Attendees are asked to bring a plate.
For more details visit http://earthhour.org.au/events/wauchope-community-arts-hall-wauchope-nsw/
