Earth Hour 2018 is happening on March 24 with its theme #Connect2Earth

Save the date – March 24, 2018. On this day, Filipinos nationwide will be observing Earth Hour for the 11th straight year.  Its theme, #Connect2Earth, is a campaign to strengthen awareness about biodiversity and climate action.

Earth Hour Flashback

Earth Hour began originally in Sydney on March 31, 2007. The year after, in 2008, Manila joined in. My family and I participated by turning off our house lights. I’ve been trying to participate in some way since then. Initially Earth Hour just involved turning off lights everywhere. Malls and public places began organizing events around this lights-off highlight. But in 2011, Earth Hour launched its theme “Going Beyond the Hour” to encourage all participant cities to do more than just turn lights off for an hour. Today, Earth Hour participants span over 7,000 cities and 180 countries and territories with many sustainable and energy-saving activities year-long. In the Philippines, for example, these Beyond the Hour activities involve:

• The deployment of portable solar lamps to replace dangerous and dirty kerosene lamps in Palawan and Mindoro.
• The sharing of best practices for communities via the One Planet City Challenge.
• The dissemination of climate change solutions via environmental education sessions, training modules, heavy media engagements, and talks.

What is #Connect2Earth all about?

At the launch of Earth Hour Philippines recently, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) and its brand ambassadors came together to encourage everyone to take collective action to protect our biodiversity. Here are some things I learned that makes the theme, #Connect2Earth, even more relevant.

1. The Philippines is home to over 100 species of creatures that are endemic to the country.
2. Studies show that globally, man is consuming resources as though we had 1.6 Earths. That means we are consuming resources faster than the planet can replenish these.
3. A huge problem of the planet is plastic waste. We have sea creatures dying from inadvertently swallowing plastics that find their way into our oceans.
4. Some species are at risk already of becoming extinct because their natural habitat is being overrun by man’s intrusion and development.

Watch this video.

 

 

In its website, WWF-Philippines, the organization spearheading Earth Hour in the Philippines, talks about the importance of biodiversity:

Biodiversity is essential to the food we eat, to the water we drink and the air we breathe. All of these ‘services’ we take for granted depend on a complex web of soil, water and carbon processes, powered by the millions of species we share our planet with.

Take the example of the Amazon rainforest. Often called the ‘lungs of our planet’, did you know that every species in this biodiversity hotspot – plant or animal – is helping provide the air we breathe thousands of miles away? The leaf-cutter ant for instance helps trim forest vegetation, stimulating new plant growth while breaking down plant materials and adding essential nutrients to the soil. This helps trees to grow and replenish – and continue to produce around 20 per cent of the Earth’s oxygen. Incredible, isn’t it? And to think that is just one species in one forest on one continent on Earth!

At any given minute, biodiversity is helping provide the services below to you and me, together with the varied wildlife we share our home with. But now, things are changing. Our planet is getting warmer, our forest cover thinner and our oceans more acidic and it is because of us – and climate change. 

WWF ambassadors came in full force during the launch to lend their voices to Earth Hour. There were the long-time  WWF-Philippines National Ambassadors like host/model Marc Nelson and his buddy and host of “Ang Pinaka”, Rovilson Fernandez, as well as a new face, actress Iza Calzado. We were missing Mikee Cojuangco who could not come due to family matters.

There are many ways we can #Connect2Earth. We can start conversations on some of the most pressing environmental issues. Earth Hour 2018 in Manila will be going back to the iconic Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in Pasay City, which was the venue of the country’s first Earth Hour switch-off event in 2008. There will be activity booths, exhibits, and cultural performances by local artists with messages that help honor our planet.

 

 

You can spread the word about Earth Hour through your social media accounts. Click HERE to find out how.

And on March 24, go to the CCP grounds and join in the celebration of Earth Hour with others. Switch-off will happen between 8:30-9:30 PM although celebrations will start as early as 7 PM.