'It's more than just turning off the lights': what else to do for Earth Hour

For one hour every March since 2007, darkness has swept the globe as grassroots environmentalists, schools, offices and those responsible for some of the world’s most iconic landmarks switch off lights in a symbolic call for more action on climate change.



This year, the WWF, which manages the initiative, hopes to build on its growing success and says millions of actions will be taken in at least 180 countries and territories. A record 187 countries took part in the event’s record breaking 10th year.

An hour is not going to save the world – but a key message in publicising the event is that every action counts and that energised individuals can make genuine change to the way we think about human impact on the planet.

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The WWF says highlights of its pushes for new legislation include the banning of all plastics in the Galapagos in 2014, planting 17 million trees in Kazakhstan and pushing new laws for the protection of seas and forests in Russia.

Here, readers tell us how they are going further than the hour (you should switch off the lights from 8:30-9:30pm local time) with gestures such as refusing plastic, leaving the car at home and hosting events to inspire others in 2018.



‘It is wrong to think we as individuals can’t achieve something meaningful’ – Jen Gale, 40, Wiltshire



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jen Gale is pledging to refuse plastic cutlery when eating out.

I’m making my own promise for the planet and refusing plastic cutlery when eating out, and I’m asking all the members of my 15k-strong Facebook community to join in, make their own pledges on 24 March and spread the word.

When faced with huge issues like plastic pollution and climate change, it can feel overwhelming, as if we as individuals could never hope to achieve anything meaningful, but this is so wrong! Earth Hour is a brilliant event to raise awareness of the plight of the planet and allows people to show that they care. If everybody who makes a promise carries through with it, and the changes continue beyond Earth Hour, it really will make a difference in reducing the amount of plastic and carbon overloading the planet.

‘We will need to look at every part our lifestyles’ – Tim Eggins, 50, Chard, Somerset



I am part of a local community group called Sustainable Chard. We have organised a day of events called Earth Hour Chard, including events aimed at the younger members of our town where they can learn about upcycling, renewable energy, planting and growing. During the afternoon there will be eco talks and workshops where people can learn how to reduce their impact on the planet with topics on travel, food, the home and carbon footprints and in the evening we have assembled live bands, musicians, poets, green traders and therapists for an Earth Hour extravaganza.



We aim to engage as many people as possible, showing that the event is more than just switching off the lights: if we are to make any impact on climate change we will need to look at every part our lifestyles.

‘I’ll try to persuade my parents not to use the car’ – Tehya, 18, Zurich

I am not just going to turn the lights off for an hour, I want to try to live in as environmentally friendly way as possible for the day. I will tell as many people as possible at school and locally to convince them to contribute to the effort.

At home, I’ll unplug all electrical devices and lights during Earth Hour. I’ll try to persuade my parents not to use the car and to use public transport instead. I will not buy any plastic (food in plastic wrappings, bottles etc) or meat (which I don’t do anyway, as I am a vegetarian). In the evening when it’s dark I will try to not turn on any lights and use candles for light instead.

‘We hope to make people mindful of the need for conservation’ – Eric Engle, 32, West Virginia



Our voluntary organisation Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action has convinced Parkersburg city government, the county government and the federal buildings to turn off all the lights that they can. We’ll have a candlelit event with acoustic music at a park in the midst of dimmed downtown on the night.



We hope to make people mindful of the need for conservation and energy efficiency and to educate on anthropogenic global climate change while encouraging environmental and climate activism and continued coalition-building.



‘Governments and big companies have the power to do more, but this does not absolve us of responsibility’ – Jo Harper, Leamington Spa



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jo Harper is holding a candlelit dinner for which no ingredient will have been packed in plastic.

At the school where I teach, we all wrote promises for the planet and hung them on our “promise tree”. I made 120 vegan flapjacks so that we could have a plastic-free breaktime and the children brought wild cuddly toys to school to raise money to sponsor four endangered animals. At home I am holding a candlelit Earth Hour dinner for 12 people, for which none of the ingredients can have been packed in plastic or use unsustainable palm oil. It’s quite a challenge!



Earth Hour is largely symbolic, but it gets people thinking about the environment and what they can do personally. My message is that if we all do something, together we can make a big difference. By making promises about what we can do ourselves, it forces us to consider our own impact on the environment and our own responsibility. Governments and big companies have the power to do more, but this does not absolve us of responsibility. By holding the dinner party and asking some of my guests to make a plastic-free pudding, we have all become more aware of how plastic surrounds almost everything we buy. I now look at my shopping in a different way and I hope that other people will do so too.

‘Our Guides are spending a whole evening without electricity – Amy Billington, 23, Bangor



I run a Guide unit in Groomsport, County Down, and we are participating in this year’s Earth Hour by running the entire evening in the dark, with no electricity. We are doing an environmental scavenger hunt around the local area as we meet beside the sea, gathering items such as plastics and litter to clean up our village a little bit, toasting marshmallows under tealights and trying to draw pictures in the dark.

We hope to raise awareness of both Earth Hour itself and the WWF aims and values locally within our community. We want to do our bit in helping save the planet and show the Guides that you do not need to use so much electricity. We hope this event will inspire other local Guide, Brownie and Rainbow units to do the same and make this an annual event.

‘We’re hosting a community evening, cooking rescued surplus food from local farms’ – Charmaine Jacobs, Kent



Charmaine Jacobs aims to reduce avoidable food waste with a candlelit soup supper.

I run a social enterprise called the Gastro Hub in Folkestone aiming to connect people through sustainable food, cooking, conversation and communal dining experiences. Our overall mission is to reduce avoidable food waste and carbon emissions by preventing surplus food from going to landfill, through a community-led infrastructure to divert and transform this food into delicious and nutritious meals.



For Earth Hour we are hosting a community candlelit supper serving warming soup made with surplus vegetables rescued from farms by the Gleaning Network in Kent. We are hoping to spread awareness of the individual and collective power we have to affect change on our environment. By bringing local people together in a way that demonstrates simple actions we can all take to reduce our carbon footprint, we hope that it will inspire a positive behaviour shift-change in others.