Satu jam untuk bumi

Karam Singh Valia dan Lynn Lim

Assalamualaikum dan Salam Sejahtera

Pernahkah saudara menonton iklan ini?



Sejarah

Program ini bermula di Sydney, Australia pada tahun 2007 dimana 2.2 juta rumah dan kilang-kilang menutup lampu
mereka selama satu jam. Pada 2008 mesej ini telah berkembang dengan pesat dengan 50 juta orang menutup lampu di
mereka. Semua mercu tanda dunia seperti rumah Opera di Australia , Jambatan di San Francisco , Colloseum di Rom
dan lain lain di dalam kegelapan. Pada tahun ini , program Earth Hour talah melangkah ke hadapan dengan harapan
1 bilion rumah menutup lampu mereka sebagai tanda mengundi bumi. [undi bumi daripada undi pemanasan global]
Sebanyak 74 negara telah menjujukkan sokongan yang padu bagi menjayakan program ini dan angka ini bertambah
hari demi hari.

Tenaga yang dijimatkan

Maklumat daripada WWF Thailand, Bankon telah mengurangkan kadar penggunaan eletrik sebanyak 73.34 megawatts ,iaitu bersamaan dengan 41.6 tan karbon Dioksida. Angka ini lebih kecil daripada kempen yang hampir serupa oleh Majlis Bandaran Bankok pada Mei dua tahun lalu dimana 530 megawatts- per jam telah dijimatkan dan 143 tan pengeluaran karbon dioksida dapat dihalang.

Lagi daripada petikan ini dari wikipedia;

Toronto saved 900 megawatt-hours of electricity. 8.7% was saved if measured against a typical March Saturday night. Ireland, as a whole, had a reduction in electricity use of about 1.5% for the evening.In the three-hour period between 18:30 and 21:30, there was a reduction of 50 megawatts, saving 150 megawatt-hours, or approximately 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

In Dubai, where external lighting on several major city landmarks was turned off and street lighting in selected areas was dimmed by 50%, the Electricity and Water Authority reported savings of 100 megawatt-hours of electricity. This represented a 2.4% reduction in demand compared to before the hour began.

The best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The city reported a drop of 13% in electricity demand. However, Transpower reported that New Zealand's power consumption during Earth Hour was 335 megawatts, higher than the 328 megawatt average of the previous two Saturdays.^[18] Melbourne, Australia saved 10.1% of electricity. Sydney, being the city that participated both 2007 and 2008 Earth Hour, cut 8.4% electricity consumption. This is less than last year's 10.2%, however Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley made the claim that after factoring margin of error, the participation in this city is the same as last year.

The worst result was from Calgary, Canada. The city's power consumption actually went up 3.6% at the hour's peak electricity demand. In Calgary, however, where weather plays a large role in power consumption, the city experienced weather 12°C colder than the previous Saturday's recorded temperature.

The event was interpreted as tokenism, and some focused on the reduction of carbon emissions, whether the significant reduction in electricity consumption reported occurred at all, and questionable coverage of the event by the media conglomerate that sponsored it. It should be noted that the Earth Hour is very similar to the grassroots Earth Day Energy Fast, which from 1991 to 2007 proposed going completely without man-made energy each Earth Day. Earth Day Energy Fast was folded in 2007 since the campaign's founder claimed it was "too late" for such a campaign to have meaningful impact.

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Bali made clear that signatories to the Kyoto Protocol accept that greenhouse gas emissions reductions of from 25 to 40% are necessary by 2020 to reduce the impact of global warming which is causing sea level rise and numerous other problems. In that context Earth Hour is at worst tokenism or at best creating awareness to lead to further steps like switching to green power from sources such as wind power, solar power, or nuclear power, and away from electricity produced by burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and petroleum.

According to figures from EnergyAustralia, a local utility, mains electricity consumption for the 2007 event in Sydney was 2% lower during the Hour than would be expected given the time, weather conditions and past four years' consumption patterns. The Herald Sun equated this with "taking 48,613 cars off the road for 1 hour." Critics, most notably Columnist Andrew Bolt, labelled this as "A cut so tiny is trivial - equal to taking six cars off the road for a year". In context, the six cars equates to there being six fewer cars on the road at any given point of time in the day or night. In response to this criticism, the organisers of Earth Hour counter that "If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year." and they also note that the main goal of Earth Hour is to create awareness around climate change issues and "to express that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet for the better." and not about the specific energy reductions made during the hour being all that's required.

The 10.2% figure was itself challenged in a detailed analysis by David Solomon, a finance student at the University of Chicago. Solomon used eight years of electricity usage data to conclude that the Earth Hour-inspired drop was 6.33%, and that after other potential factors were taken into account, 2.10%, "statistically indistinguishable from zero." In some areas in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be twilight at 8 p.m., removing some of the advantages of the event.

David Soloman claims that 2007 Earth Hour cut Sydney's mains electricity consumption by 2.1%. Earth Hour 2008 was held internationally on 29 March 2008 from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time, marking the first anniversary of the event with many partner cities and individuals around the world participating.

Peranan Anda

Apa yang anda perlu buat ialah menutup lampu selama satu jam iaitu dari pukul 8.30 malam hingga pukul 9.30 malam
pada hari sabtu , 28 mac 2009!

Contoh badan-badan yang menyokong program ini.

-1 utama shopping centre
-Air Asia
-Astro
-Bursa Malaysia
-belambak lagi!

Oleh itu, marilah kita bersama-sama menentukan masa hadapan generasi kita yang akan datang!