South Africans have expressed mixed feelings about this year’s Earth Hour. The global initiative will be observed from 08:30 on Saturday night and is expected to save energy as millions switch off their lights for the hour.
Did you see your country? ? Comment below which country you’ll be joining Earth Hour from! #Connect2Earth with us for #EarthHour 2019, 8:30PM your local time. ? pic.twitter.com/HRNvFsuCr2
— Earth Hour (@earthhour) March 30, 2019
Some South Africans say they are willing to sacrifice an hour of light and make a positive contribution.
“Today, to celebrate Earth Hour I will be turning off my lights, the objective being that I want to save energy and contribute with others.”
“It is something that we would participate in because with what’s happening now, everything is just going downwards. We’ve got our two kids here. We need to think of the future for our kids, try to save energy as much as we can and try to make everybody aware that what is happening actually is a ticking time bomb.”
However, some South Africans have rejected the campaign. They say they have had enough darkness given the load shedding in recent times.
Earlier this month, Eskom instituted Stage 4 load shedding due to the power utility struggling with generating units at some stations.
These South Africans say they have done their part. ” No, because I’m tired of darkness. All the time, every five minutes we’ve got load shedding.”
Another one adding, “No, I won’t be participating purely because I think we’ve been through enough load shedding and we’ve done our part partially whether voluntarily or not but we’ve saved enough.”
Lights out in Sydney for Earth Hour
Meanwhile, the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were plunged into darkness for an hour Saturday to raise awareness about climate change and its impact on the planet’s vanishing biodiversity.
The 13th edition of Earth Hour, organised by the green group WWF, will see millions of people across 180 countries turn off their lights at 8:30 pm local time to highlight energy use and the need for conservation.
“We are the first generation to know we are destroying the world. And we could be the last that can do anything about it,” the charity said.
“We have the solutions, we just need our voices to be heard.”
WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman told AFP that “Earth hour still is the world’s largest grassroots movement for people to take action on climate change”.
