Earth Hour was on 31 March 2012, 2030, and was something of a global phenomenon with, we're told, hundreds of millions of people turning off their lights for one hour across the planet – something we were urged to watch from our computers. I fear I did neither.
But it wasn't just to save an hour’s electricity, of course. Earth Hour was about people's coming together to put the focus on this world we all share – and how we should protect it: not just for an hour, but every hour – every day. It was a celebration, it seems – as someone who emailed me noted:
It’s a special candlelit evening at home with friends or family, a night out on the town, or watching the spectacular global switch-offs live online from landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Times Square, or Sydney Opera House.
Apparently even the Italian rugby team and Totti (I initially read this as "Totty") were enthused – though it wasn't clear what they'd be doing until I read this:
Under the WWF banner for the very first time, the Italian Rugby Team scrummed down for the planet, playing at the Olympic Stadium in Rome at the recent Six Nations Tournament. The Italian team and Federugby support the fight against climate change, and a few days before their official debut, the official Italian Earth Hour video was shot at the Olympic Stadium. The video shows rugby stars Andrea Lo Cicero, Simone Favaro and Cornelius Van Zyl, ‘passing the panda’, and inviting their fans and the general public to change their bad habits and ‘team up’ for a more sustainable world.
Whilst 'passing the panda' may well catch on in Italy – though not in England where blood sports are banned – I'm very doubtful about all this iconography of candles with its celebration of the dark and doing without. I do wonder what the point is. And, isn't there something very odd about watching darkness descend on a computer screen? I trust that the Olympics won't be adopting this strategy for its opening ceremony.
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