Earth Hour: Origin, Who invent, Benefits, Theme and 2021 Celebration

Earth Hour participants will turn off lights and unnecessary electric equipment and gadgets.

Earth Hour Origin

Earth Hour is an annual environmental campaign that brings attention to the effects of climate change by asking people to switch off lights at homes and businesses for an hour at 8.30 pm (20:30), local time, usually on the last Saturday of March.

This year, the Earth Hour event falls on March 27 across the world.

Whose idea was Earth Hour?

Earth Hour came from a think tank initiated by Earth Hour Co-Founder, Andy Ridley, resulting in the formation of a partnership between WWF-Australia, Leo Burnett, and Fairfax Media to address the climate change issue.

In 2007, there was still a degree of skepticism and denial on the issue of climate change. Earth Hour came as the inspiration to rally people to the reality of climate change and start a dialogue about what we as individuals can do to help address the planet’s biggest environmental challenge yet. Leo Burnett partnered with WWF to promote the idea and help make the campaign a reality in Sydney, a campaign that has now gone beyond Australia and climate change to symbolize the growing global pursuit of a better, sustainable future for all.

What Do People Do?

Millions of people turn off their lights for Earth Hour at 8.30 pm (20:30) in their local times on the last Saturday of March. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas have stood in darkness during previous Earth Hours. Some people enjoy Earth Hour with a candle-lit dinner or a candle-lit bath, while others host large events or parties, either in darkness or with candles, to celebrate Earth Hour.

Businesses and government organizations, as well as community and political leaders, also take part in Earth Hour. It's about giving people a voice in the planet’s future and working together to create a sustainable low carbon future for planet earth.

Who participates in Earth Hour?

Since the first global Earth Hour in 2008, more than 7,000 localities, including 400 major cities, across nearly 190 countries and territories have come to participate in the grassroots movement each year. Major landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, and the Empire State Building, and even many websites—including Google—have joined in Earth Hour. There are also numerous organizations and agencies that now support and promote Earth Hour, including UNESCO, the UN Environment Program, and the International Trade Union Confederation, as well as corporations such as IKEA, HSBC, Hilton Worldwide, and FIFA.

Why is Earth Hour held?

The second-to-last and last weekend of March is around the time of the Spring and Autumn equinoxes in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively, which allows for near coincidental sunset times in both hemispheres, thereby ensuring the greatest visual impact for a global ‘lights out’ event.

As the World Wide Fund for Nature explains, Earth Houris not a carbon reduction exercise but a symbolic action. The objective is to encourage people, governments, and businesses to recognize their ecological footprint and start thinking about how to take responsibility for managing it in a more sustainable way. By participating in Earth Hour, people are making a commitment to fight climate change and build a better future for our planet. Earth Hour helps to create a sense of solidarity between people across national borders by reminding us all that while stopping the progress of climate change is a global problem, it does have some local solutions—from turning off the lights when you leave a room, carpooling to work, or simply staying in tune with your local forecast to understand how climate change is affecting your area. In addition, the success of Earth Hour has led directly to a number of other crowd-funded environmental initiatives, such as the planting of half a million trees in Uganda to combat deforestation and the passing of legislation to protect 3.4 million hectares of the sea off the coast of Argentina. It has also renewed global interest in making Earth Day another centerpiece of collective action to combat climate change.

Earth Hour helps remind millions of people around the world of the importance of making environmentally conscious decisions in their daily lives, and it demonstrates how those millions of decisions can add up together to major change. It serves to encourage people to seek out the facts about climate change and its long-term catastrophic impact on our planet and our lives.

As we rapidly consume our planet’s finite amount of fossil fuels, we are also devastating our planet’s environment with pollution, global warming, and climate change. With such a major challenge before us, it can seem daunting and perhaps overwhelming. It is all too easy to lose sight of the fact that our everyday actions can make a difference—especially when we all work together.

Earth Hour 2021 Theme

The Earth Hour 2021 theme will focus on “Climate Change to Save Earth.” Climate change is real, and it is affecting us in one way or another. We should unite together and fight with it.

Earth Hour Event – All Themes From Beginning

• Theme 2020 Earth Hour- “Climate Action and Sustainable Development”

• 2019 Theme Earth Hour– “#Connect2Earth”

• 2018 Theme Earth Hour- “Biodiversity”

• 2017 Theme Earth Hour- “Our Choice for the Plane”

• 2016 Theme Earth Hour- “Shine a Light on Climate Action”

• 2015 Theme Earth Hour- “Change Climate Change”

• 2014 Theme Earth Hour- “Use Your Power to Make Change a Reality”

• 2013 Theme Earth Hour- “I Will if You Will”

• 2012 Theme Earth Hour- “I Will if You Will”

• Theme 2011 Earth Hour- “Go Beyond the Hour”

• 2010 Theme Earth Hour- “The power of individual action for a sustainable future”

• 2009 Theme Earth Hour- “Vote Earth”

• Earth Hour 2008 Tagline- We’ve Turned the Lights Out. Now it’s Your Turn.

How Earth Hour is Celebrated Last Year?

The theme of Earth Hour 2020 was based on “Climate Action and Sustainable Development”. The event was celebrated on 28th March 2020 from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

Earth Hour is an international event where people from every corner of the planet organize many events and activities. Unfortunately, this is the first time the world celebrated Earth Hour 2020 digitally instead of physically due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, Earth Hour has delivered a message more pertinent where people raised awareness about the crisis of nature loss, climate change, and Global Warming. Despite facing difficult times, Earth Hour 2020 has become a big digital event with many social media impressions. Many digital events have been organized to spread awareness.

Earth Hour Official Tweeted to “Be creative on this Earth Hour event & take some time to de-stress, play board games with your family members and have a candlelit dinner. Show us how you are taking part using #EarthHour on your social media channel”.

Countries across the world, including WWF India, hosted many events digitally on this Earth Hour 2020. WWF India had put together these activities digitally that many individuals took part in.

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