Dr. Harsh Vardhan appeals to people to switch off lights during Earth Hour on March 24

“Tomorrow, on 24th March 2018 as we celebrate Earth Hour, I will switch off all non-essential lights in my office and residence from 8:30 to 9:30 pm in support for action against nature loss. I urge you to do the same”.   Making an impassioned appeal to people to switch off all non-essential lights from 8.30 p.m-9.30 p.m tomorrow to mark the Earth Hour, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has made a strong pitch for taking a pledge to ‘GIVE UP TO GIVE BACK’ and Connect2Earth. “The campaign should be seen as an opportunity to adopt a shifting of the consumption culture and behaviour change towards sustainability, helping economise operations and reduce the costs”, Dr. Vardhan said.  He added that GIVE UP is a choice that needs to make smarter decisions for the nature and deliver a long-term impact. 

The Minister emphasized that observing Earth Hour is also a part-n-parcel of the Green Good Deeds movement, in which every individual ought to take small, voluntary green actions to protect and conserve the environment and the Earth.  Dr. Vardhan exhorted the people to undertake one Green Good Deed every day – such as plant a sapling, segregate waste, cycle to work or use carpool, stop using plastic,

Earth Hour is the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment where citizens around the world unite to take a stand against climate change by turning off non-essential lights for one hour. Earth Hour is a global initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature India (WWF), with a record participation of 178 countries and territories around the world.   This year, Earth Hour will be observed on Saturday, March 24 from 8:30-9:30 pm.

On the occasion of Earth Hour 2018, WWF-India is launching the ‘Give Up to Give Back’ initiative to inspire organisations, institutions and individuals to make the choice to curb some habits, practices and lifestyles that burden our lives and the environment.   “Give Up to Give Back” and Connect to Earth campaign includes taking steps such as:

• Give up single-use plastics: Single-use plastics are fast filling up our oceans, rivers and landfills. Whether it is a plastic bottle, disposable cup or straw- alternatives exist.  Find ways of minimizing single-use plastics.

• Give up fossil fuels: Give up conventional power sources: Choose to go solar, use solar appliances like solar geysers, solar lights or install solar rooftop panels and generate your own energy! There is nothing better for the planet’s health than some homegrown energy!

• Give up lonely car rides for your employees: Our roads are clogged and so are our lungs! Vehicular emission is one of the major causes of air pollution in our cities today.  Carpool to work with your colleagues one day each week as a Carpool Day and reduce the burden on our cities and our lungs.

• Give up E-waste: Every old mobile phone, laptop or any electronic gadget that we carelessly discard often ends up in rivers, ultimately making its way back to our homes through the water we drink. Give up e-waste and close the loop on responsible recycling of e-waste so that it doesn’t end up in our lives and affect our health.

• Give up excess use of paper: Businesses may be far away from forests, but they are not far removed. Paper is a very important resource which makes our work possible.  Every time we print a document/bill/collateral, we are consuming an important and fast depleting resource that comes from forest paper. Think before you print and if you must, use responsibly sourced paper instead of the regular ones.

• Switch Off: All non-essential lights between 8:30 to 9:30pm on March 24, 2018 to mark support for Earth Hour 2018.

Courtesy:pib.nic.in