The Earth Hour Movement

WHAT IS EARTH HOUR?

The Earth Hour movement is a global unifying action that symbolises our collective and ongoing dedication to protecting our planet. 

This involves an annual ‘lights out’ event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) organisation, where people from all parts of the world are encouraged to turn off their lights on a predetermined date towards the end of March.

HOW DID IT BEGIN?

Earth Hour’s concept was created by Andy Ridley in 2007 to educate Australians on the climate crisis and encourage people to show their support for climate action.

Since then, Earth Hour has evolved from a local grassroots movement to a globally recognised international campaign with millions of individuals from over 185 countries taking part.

The uncertainty created by COVID-19 forced Earth Hour 2020 to become completely digital. As a result, online social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are exponentially fuelling the campaign’s global growth – leading to the campaign gaining the largest online following since its launch 15 years ago.

WHAT DIFFERENCE WILL IT MAKE?

While the ‘lights out’ event may lead to energy and carbon reduction, WWF emphasises that the campaign is primarily a symbolic action.  

The globally unifying action of switching off our lights represents the collective awareness of our climate crisis and our ongoing dedication to protecting our planet.

It also serves as an annual reminder to continue our commitment to protecting the planet and to actively address the evolving environmental threats. 

This creates an opportunity for us to start the crucial conversations we need to have about how to fix our escalating environmental crisis – leading to far-reaching impacts.