By IANS,
New Delhi : It’s a different weekend that many people, especially youngsters, are looking forward to Saturday night. Keeping in mind the 60-minute Earth Hour global campaign against climate change, most are going to turn off their lights and hold candle-light parties and get-togethers instead.
A global initiative that aims to send out the message that people are concerned about climate change and that policy makers should make it their foremost priority, India along with 85 other countries will observe “lights out” between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. Saturday to observe what is termed Earth Hour.
Sucheta Verma, a 19-year-old college goer, for instance, is doing all that she can to convince as many people she knows to observe the Earth Hour.
“I have been SMSing my friends, relatives and as many other people who I know to switch off all their non-essential lights between 8.30-9.30 p.m. tonight and join the rest of the globe in observing the Earth Hour.
“The gist of this whole thing is that you have to be more aware and do more to stop climate change because that affects you. So do this for yourself,” Verma told IANS.
To make the entire event more memorable, Verma added that she has invited some of her friends to her place in the evening for a candle-light get together.
Others, like IT professional Rajiv Dutt have created a special community on social networking site Facebook and has got all his friends and colleagues join it.
“Climate change is no longer just an academic term that you hear experts talking about in seminars. It is a glaring reality waiting to wipe out humankind from the face of the earth. The least that I can do, therefore, is support the Earth Hour initiative and even if it is just for an hour, bring down the energy consumption,” Dutt maintained.
Besides college and school students and professionals, a large number of Indian corporates have also pledged their support to the campaign.
Thus, banks like ICICI, HDFC and HSBC, as also IT giants Wipro and HP will observe the Earth Hour. All ITC hotels will switch off their lights for candle-light dinners during the 60 minutes, while PVR cinemas will screen short films on climate change Saturday evening.
Some, however, said that they were not aware of the campaign.
“I had no idea about the campaign. The organisers should have advertised it better so that as many people from across the country could take part in it,” said Animikha Borah of Guwahati.
Ravi Singh of the WWF-India that is leading the initiative said they had done a lot to publicise the campaign.
“We have been doing all that we can to advertise the campaign and now people have been doing that themselves. There are SMS campaigns, blogs and communities created on social networking sites,” Singh pointed out.
“You have to remember that it is not possible to reach each person in the country but we are trying to reach out to the majority. But this is not a one-day thing. Climate change is an ongoing process and so should such activities be,” he added.