Earth Hour: Does It Make A Difference?

It won't reverse global warming, but proponents said Earth Hour was a good way to raise awareness about the climate problems the world is facing.

Organizers saw the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy. While it was unlikely that all lights in participating cities were cut, it was the symbolic darkening of monuments, businesses and individual homes.

The goal was to cut electricity consumption by five per cent for an hour. Cutting power consumption generally makes everyone feel good, but the actual reduction it achieves is a drop in the bucket.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there needs to be a 50 per cent to 85 per cent reduction in emissions to turn the current warming trend around.

Earth Hour demonstrated how dealing with climate change was really going to happen: from the ground up.

The World Wildlife Fund set a target of one billion people shutting off their lights. The organization said that that kind of participation was equivalent to a "global vote" in favour of taking action on climate change. It would also send a strong message to the world leaders expected to gather at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which takes place Dec. 9-17, 2009, in Copenhagen. The meeting is supposed to come up with a plan to deal with climate change that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Source : www.cbc.ca