Earth Hour Should Be a Habit and Culture
Earth Hour 2009 was a success according to local news in the Philippines. Earth Hour, in my view should be a habit. This is something personal to me because of my early orientation in biotechnology as a young boy in the Philippines. When I was a kid, the “Green Revolution” initiated by then First Lady Imelda Marcos was really a hit in Ilocos Norte.
During the Green Revolution, people here started to grow plants and trees in their own backyards and up to now (many generations have come and gone), many Ilocanos still benefit from the program. It was all about culture. As children in a simple community, we were indoctrinated early that working with your hands and getting your hands dirty with soil were actually cool. Really, it was and still is. If you have been to Ilocos Norte, you will see how many trees we have here especially along highways and most especially in mountainous areas. Most of these trees have been planted 20-30 years ago and they have served well tourists and locals in countless ways. Even as I write this, I am planning to grow more common veggies in our small backyard like cabbage, tomatoes and eggplants. I’m proud of it. Not because I’m blogging doesn’t mean I won’t be farming or gardening. I still will and honestly, I love it.
It was culture in Ilocos Norte that made my love for the environment grow. This is something I’d like to pass on to the next generation and I know it will benefit them in the long run.
As to the Earth Hour celebration, the main objective is the same as the above-cited experience of this author. Earth hour primarily aims to protect the environment from too much heat and carbon emissions. This could be a regular guy’s first line of defense against global warming and you know what, it’s not enough that we celebrate it one hour a year. IMHO, it should become a part of our culture.
In integral calculus, when we sum up the whole by taking all its basic parts, we can come up with something really significant, something that would become a very beautiful graph – a picture of people working together to fight global warming and drastic climate changes. This graph is determined by an integral equation. In math problem, an equation along with other parts (variables, data points, constraints, conditions) constitutes what make up the process of solving something. Now if we take culture (within ourselves) as one variable and take that culture to a higher level – family, community, city, province, and beyond – dude, that would be something.
Change always begins somewhere. Most often than not, it starts within the individual. For starters, may I recommend the following ways to save electricity (not just during Earth Hour celebration):
- Turn off all electrical equipment and tools when not in use. Unplug these things when you don’t plan on using them for long hours.
- Use fluorescent lights in your homes to save on electric bills. Fluorescent types of light bulbs also emit lesser heat but more shine.
- Avoid keeping computers and TV sets in standby modes.
There are many more ways I want to say here but I think most of them are self-explanatory. All you have to do is be conscious. Look around and see what YOU can do to help save the environment so you can be a part of the integral equation. I’m in for the fight against global warming. Are you?
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Tags: Earth Hour, Earth Hour Celebration, environmental protection, personal
anak ng landlady ko nag earthhour. she was so excited about it. so i just waited and didn’t turn on my rooms light until it was 930pm.
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jessie Reply:
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 am
Bro,
Ok lang yun. Lumabas ka na lang sana ng bahay then naglamyerda for 1 hour. Hahaha! Ganun ang ginawa namin ni misis eh. Dahil sobra ang init pag walang electric fan dito. Ayos naman. Nanood na lang kami ng Earth Hour program sa plaza.
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