It’s earth hour, switch off your lights
27-03-2015
Today, on the eve of Earth Hour, the City of Johannesburg will switch off the lights for an hour at all its buildings to conserve energy and galvanise its residents and employees around the global campaign to combat climate change.
“The message to take home is that we need to pay attention to how our actions as individuals and corporates contribute to climate change and how that has a negative impact on Earth,” said Member of the Mayoral Committee for Infrastructure and Environment Councillor Matshidiso Mfikoe.
It is not too late to register your concern. Climate change is causing many challenges, such as rising sea levels, floods, heatwaves, drought and erratic rainfall patterns. These have had a negative impact on the countries’ food security, the World Wide Fund for Nature has said.
Through the City of Joburg’s “Use Your Power This Earth Hour”, residents can still register their concern about climate change with WWF-SA to make their voices heard and add them to the growing numbers of global citizens calling for climate action ahead of the Climate Change Conference (COP21) in December in Paris, France.
Tomorrow, the Johannesburg Zoo will be the place to be as hundreds of residents explore their wilder side as the countdown begins for the one-hour switch-off.
Earth Hour, an annual international event held on the last Saturday of March, began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 when two million people switched off their lights for one hour to bring the world’s attention to the deteriorating state of the earth as a result of the damage of climate change.
A year later, more than 50 million people across the globe took part on March 29.
Now in its eighth year, Earth Hour’s goal is not to achieve measurable electricity savings but to raise awareness of the need for sustainable energy use and to demand action to halt the planet-harming climate change.
More than 170 countries and territories have already confirmed their participation.
Earth Hour 2015 takes place just months before UN member states are meant to sign an ambitious pact in Paris in December to limit galloping global warming.
Residents who want to wait for the Earth Hour under African skies with the sound of the wild need to make their way to the Anglogold Ashanti Conference Centre Gate at the Zoo from 5pm.
Gates close at 6pm. The entrance fee is R150 a person.
Bring your picnic basket, a sense of adventure and takkies to undertake a walking tour of the zoo under the blaze of the stars. For those not keen on the physical stuff, you can wait for the countdown around bonfires at the campsite.