As at 24 March 2009 there are 2,398 cities, towns and municipalities in 83 countries around the world (earthhour website) that have committed to vote-earth for Earth Hour 2009. The vote earth tag is aimed at giving the human race the opportunity to elect between Earth and global warming.So, what is Earth Hour and what is the significance of this campaign?
It is an annual international event created by the WWF, held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change (Wikipedia).
Alas, for the people residing in Kota Kinabalu or generally in Sabah, the call to switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30pm come March 28 in support of action on global warming may remind the people more of the perennial black-outs rather than the intended awareness campaign itself.
It is like, you are practising this for years and against your will - I am refering to the many incidences of sudden blackouts that sometimes results in going without electricity for hours. In Penampang, it can happen any time. It can be in the form of power dips, multiple power trips of 2 to 3 black-outs and it can sometime go on for hours; so much so that if I were to make complaint using my fixed line telephone, the operator at SESB (Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd) call centre could tell my name by just looking at my caller ID.
I am not calling this call a joke, but in Sabah you can not help but think that way. Sometime you just wonder if it is due to lack of political will, pure case of bad planning on the part of the utility company, or is it true that the government does not have the necessary fund to improve the situation. What is clear is that every now and then politicians come over (and I mean, the big shots from federal level) with pledge to do something, with little or no result to shout about.
Back to the Earth Hour. As one of the considerate and aware citizen, I would participate in this event by switching off a couple of the fluorescent lamps come 28 March. It may not make much difference individually but a synchronised action globally sure will get the message through.
Happy Earth Hour!
2 comments:
hey..i stumbled upon ur blog and couldn't help but agree.just 2 days ago there was a power cut for like an hour and my mum thought it was Earth Hour..hahaha i just laughed and told her it's actually on the 28th. But yeah, Earth Hour is a joke for Sabahans.
hopefully TNB would take the Earth Hour as a friendly reminder that they still need to do a lot to even think about "we have improved" since taking over SESB from Sabah Govt.
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