February 2007

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Earth Hour

OK Orgers Let's Join In And See If We Can Affect Things A little Or A Lot

EARTH HOUR - 7.30pm to 8.30pm - Saturday March 31, 2007
Started in Sydney but spreading fast around the globe.  Copy and past this article into an email if you want to spread the word.

Earth Hour is a fabulous opportunity for you and your family to do something about climate change. On one night, in one hour, more will be done, more will be demonstrated, and more will be learned than through a hundred 'talk-fests'. And you can help make it happen.

What is Earth Hour?
It sounds simple, but it is very, very dramatic. At 7.30pm on March 31st 2007, we will be encouraging companies, government departments, individuals and families to turn off their lights for just one hour. If we meet our objectives during the first Earth Hour, the savings in green house gas emissions will be the equivalent of taking 75,000 medium sized cars off the road for one whole year! Now that's something worth doing.

Why?
The facts are alarmingly clear:

* The climate is changing! The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1990. In fact 2005 was the hottest year since record keeping began.

* More than 95% of the Great Barrier Reef will have been destroyed by 2050 if carbon dioxide emissions aren't reduced. (WWF-International)

* One million species worldwide are facing extinction due to climate change. But not everybody listens to the facts. Earth Hour is your opportunity to demonstrate how a simple change in our way of life could change, and help save, our planet.

The goals of Earth Hour:

Households : Most of us use unnecessary electricity. Appliances on standby, old style light bulbs, lights left on when we're not using them. Earth Hour will help us all to realise just how simply we can make a dramatic impact upon global warming (and our own power bills).

We will see it in action.

Companies : We want companies to be involved. If every company turned off its lights when the buildings weren't in use, and combined it with energy saving technology, we would save between 2 and 4 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses every year. Earth Hour will show companies just how easy that is.

To make it an annual event : Out of the 8,766 hours in a year, let's give one back to the earth.

What you can do:

Sign up to Earth Hour and Pledge to turn off your lights on March 31st from 7.30pm to 8.30pm by logging onto www.earthhour.org

You will receive all the information you need to make Earth Hour a great success (and to cut your own energy bills in the long term). Pledging is free.

Get off standby : Turn off all the electronic equipment and appliances in your home that are not being used or are on standby.

Computers, televisions, stereo equipment, phone chargers, DVD or video equipment.

Tell a friend : Spread the word about earth Hour by involving your friends, family and workmates. Get them to pledge at earthhour.org and most importantly, turn off the lights at 7.30pm Saturday 31 March 2007.

Spread the word - Once you have signed up for Earth Hour tell a friend;
spread the word at work; tell your boss; mention it at school,
at your local sports club or society group, you can even run it past your neighbours!

Make it an event. Get your family and friends to switch off their lights as well;

Take some binoculars and look at the stars; sit and talk by candlelight;

Explore your backyard by torchlight;

Have fun with sparklers; or just do something non-electric as a family;

Have a picnic-at-dusk; pretend you are camping; or have a candlelight dinner.

For more info on Earth Hour, check out www.earthhour.org

EARTH HOUR. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

DO THIS ! spread this message thick

Note
signing up to the Earth Hour web site
We used a false postcode 123 as the web site is only set up for Australia.  No doubt they had not anticipated the global reach that is now happening.  We are sure they will forgive the fake 123 postcode and maybe change it for next year.