From darkness comes awareness
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday March 22, 2010
Earth Hour illuminates the fight against climate change, writes Megan Johnston. Three years ago Andy Ridley was standing at Fleet Steps in the Royal Botanic Gardens, a spot that draws many visitors for its winning harbour views.On this Saturday evening, however, he and his fellow environmentalists from WWF had gathered for a grander purpose - the inaugural Earth Hour, an occasion they had been organising for years. The plan was ambitious: to persuade millions of Sydneysiders to turn off their lights for an hour in a symbolic gesture against climate change."That first year was a big leap of faith," says Ridley, the campaign's co-founder and executive director.Countless cameras would be ready to record the moment and the likes of actress Cate Blanchett, the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, and the then opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, were there to witness it in person.As the hour approached, no one was sure how many of Sydney's homes and businesses would participate. But even before the crowd had finished counting down, the skyline began to darken.Over the next few minutes the Harbour Bridge and Opera House fell into shadow and skyscrapers, apartment blocks and waterside homes began to dim. The result, under a full moon, was "very Batman-esque", Ridley says. In the final analysis, an estimated 2.2 million Sydneysiders and 2100 businesses took part."Until that point I'd been extremely nervous," he says. "There were millions of people taking part and no one's in charge. It was a weird feeling to sense that people did actually care."The idea for a city-wide switch-off germinated about six years ago, when conservation organisation WWF Australia began talking to advertising agency Leo Burnett Sydney about ways to bring climate-change action to the mainstream. Fairfax Media, owner of the Herald, backed the event while other companies and leaders, including Moore, pledged their support.Word quickly spread around the world and other cities clamoured to get on board. Nearly 400 towns, cities and municipalities in 35 countries joined Sydney the following year. The movement really took off last year, when more than 4000 towns and cities signed up in 88 countries, including hundreds of millions of people. The campaign is expected to grow again this year, with at least 100 countries taking part.Global landmarks such as the CN Tower in Toronto, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and Rome's Colosseum have also been darkened for the event, while last year's Vote Earth campaign was geared towards the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. It culminated in a display at the summit called The People's Orb, a silver sphere containing videos, images and documents from around the world."It's pretty barking in terms of the scale it's gone to," Ridley says.He attributes this growth to the "open-source" nature of the event and the rise of online social media, which allow anyone, anywhere to tailor the event to local needs. And rather than focusing on fear or pessimism, it engages and empowers individuals."It's more street party than street protest," Ridley says."Humans like to band together and build together ... this is shamelessly and totally about community."As for the debate about climate change, Ridley is unperturbed. He says the growing popularity of the event symbolises a rising global awareness and greater engagement by individuals, cities and companies."Regardless of the political football that climate change tends to be, there's a sense that it is here and it's getting worse and we need to do something about it," he says.He also sees this year's event as a rallying point after Copenhagen and part of a longer journey towards creating sustainable cities."A lot of expectation went into Copenhagen that it would fix everything and clearly it didn't but if you look at the trend happening around the planet, there's only one way this is going," he says."The kind of future we're painting here is not about austerity or sacrifice but a sustainable world that will be much nicer to live in."Ridley is, however, concerned that the message of Earth Hour is criticised by some cynics. "It's symbolic and it has to be," he admits."It's absolutely fine to say one hour of cutting emissions isn't enough but the whole point is everybody's accountable."If you don't think one hour's enough, do another hour or more - or whatever you want to do."It's about the power of cities, the power of corporations, the power of communities. Everyone has to show leadership."Earth Hour 2010 will be held on Saturday, March 27, at 8.30pm. See earthhour.org
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald