Earth Hour 2011
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries/territories participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.
In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries/territories officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative.
On Saturday 27 March, Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever. A record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.
Earth Hour 2011 took place on Saturday 26 March at 8.30PM (local time). This gave a wonderful opportunity for Pangaea's team YEP Project coordinator, Michael Scholl to contact the YEPs, past, present and future and encourage them to get involved. And that they did!! Our office received mail and photos from motivated YEPs all around the world and we would like to share these with you ... but only on the condition that next year, YOU TOO will get involved!
One of our freshest Pangaea Ambassador from the February 2011 Pangaea Borneo Project, Ravyna Jassani, initiated and organised a fantastic event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Congratulations Ravyna and to all your friends and family for organising this great event! Read about the Earth Hour Youth Fest 2011... cannot wait to see what the 2012 edition will bring!
Earth Hour - 26 March 2011 
Nicolette and Andreas Meyer - Singapore "Our family spent Earth hour climbing Bukit Timah Hill, the highest natural point in Singapore and probably one of the few "light-free" places on the island. However, even here the light pollution from the city is clearly visible.
GPS Coordinates: 1°21'40"N 103°46'20"
Location: Dairy Farm Quarry, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore"
Li Jie Goh - Singapore "The picture with the circle...I did it with the intention to represent the earth. Haha... (:
My friends and I enjoyed doing our part for the EARTH. Even the little siblings. (: GPS location is 1.36633,103.881413
GPS location is 1.36633,103.881413"
Siqi Ngan - Baltimore, USA "I took advantage of the one hour of darkness to mess around with the long exposure settings (and with the Petzl headlamp no less :) ). My GPS location is 39.3465N,-76.6165W."
Rebecca Berker - Darmstardt, Germany " Ten, nine, eight, ... three, two, one“. After counting down the last seconds we turned off our lights at 8.30pm together with people from the prime meridian to 30 degrees east longitude. After the green light was given we lit our self built candles and our self drawn candle-pictures like the WWF Panda, the symbol of the Earth Hour (“60”), polar bears, fishes and a world map, what wasn´t that easy with the wind against us, but nothing and nobody could stop us. We then started our “open air candle light buffet” and someone played the guitar while the rest of us got to know to each other better, discussed environmental problems and projects but also had a lot of fun!"
Nora Haselbach - Lully Swiss "A cozy spring evening with my best friend, filled with laugh, gossips, old memories! What else?
GPS location: Ch. du Sécheron 12, 1132 Lully VD Suisse : 46°30'32.08'' N - 6° 28'02.68'' E"
Sopha Paul - Austria "We broiled green squash and made baked potatoes.
GPS-Coordinates 47° 16' 2" N 11° 23' 34" E"
Maricell Uribe - Switzerland "Me and some family members turned the lights and electricity off from 8:30 to 10:30pm. It's in Valley Center California. We had dinner and then we played a board game. I think this was especially good for the kids, they got really excited and talked about saving energy for the next couple of days. We were talking about doing an evening without lights once a week, it's nice because everybody comes together. The GPS location is: 33.202556,-117.027206"
Earth Hour Youth Fest 2011
Ravyna Jassani- Malaysia
"On the 26th of March 2011, I organised an Earth Hour Youth Fest, little did i know that it would have turned out to be as big and successful as it was! With over 120 youth participants, a collaboration with two other environmental organisations, a whole mall turning off their lights AND Front Page Coverage on one of Malaysia's leading newspapers!
The event consisted of two phases. Phase One was located at Padang Kota, in which it's main aim was to create environmental awareness among the Youth Participants. The event started off with a green talk conducted by Sharifah Hani Yasmin, who helped me out with organising this event, following a Tree-Planting and Composting Workshop conducted by YAWA (Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam - Children's Environmental Heritage Foundation, www.yawa.org). 60 trees were planted to symbolise the 60-Earth Hour Logo.The participants were divided into groups of 10 and were each given around 5-6 trees. After all the trees had been planted, it was time for the Composting Workshop and Eco-Dinner. The Composting Workshop was an educational workshop, that taught the participants how to make their own compost that can be used at home as fertilisers for their garden and other uses. Dinner was all served in eco-friendly, bio-degradable packaging and separate bags for collecting different wastes, one for Plastic, one for Paper and one for "Other" wastes, were all set up (All garbage bags used were also bio-degradable!!). Participants were also kept busy with Face-Painting and The Pledge, which involved each participant to draw an outline of their hand-print on a big piece of cloth with the number "60" on it, in which they can write their messages inside.
Once all the activities and Dinner was complete, it was time for Phase Two! Phase Two, was about creating awareness among the Kota Damansara Community. A short breifing was held before all participants head off to Sunway Giza Mall, where Phase Two will be conducted, it was a huge feat to get all the 120+ participants to cross the road towards the Mall safely, but we did it!
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At the mall, participants took part in the Gen 'Y' Green Attack and Flash MOB. The Gen 'Y' Green Attack, where Gen 'Y' stands for 'Generation Youth' involved participants to hand out custom-made bookmarks that included tips on how to Live Green, to the public. The Flash MOB was the highlight of the evening, all participants suddenly froze in their spot, all giving different poses, some wearing Sandwich Boards that promoted Earth Hour, all for five whole minutes, passer-bys looked quizzically at the participants, curious of what was going on. It was definitely an excellent way to create awareness of Earth Hour. This was followed by a countdown to 8:30pm when Earth Hour would officially begin. Sunway Giza Mall showed their support by switching off their lights, some of the shops, bars and restaurants turned of their lights too in support of Earth Hour. We also used organic, Eco-Friendly Candles to light up the place when the lights went down, in the shape of "60".
Once everything was off, the performances began. We were entertained by the SMK (P) Sri Aman School's Eco Music Band that played a wonderful set of eco-related songs including Justin Bieber's "Baby" with an eco-twist to it! Some of the instruments they use are biscuit tins, washing boards, unwanted bits of wooden sticks, pails, buckets, and even plastic bottles filled with green beans among others. After the wonderful performance we had a short break, in which me - Ravyna Jassani, Inititator of the Earth Hour Youth Fest; Sharifah Hani Yasmin, co-organiser of the Fest and President of SMK (P) Sri Aman's Eco Club; D.Arvind, Event Manager of the Earth Hour Youth Fest and Director of the MyGREEN Scouting Organisation; Dr.Jeffrey Phang, Adviser for the Earth Hour Youth Fest and Chairman of Friends of Kota Damansara, a representative from MBPJ (Malaysian Local Council), and MP Peter Chong, gave a short talk each, before the KDFC band took over to entertain us with several old hits like "Hotel California" and "Black Magic Woman" to name a few.
T-Shirts and Goodie Bags were also distributed among the participants who donated more than RM25. Proceeds collected from the t-shirt sales go to the environmental organisations "Friends of Kota Damansara" and "MYGreen Scouting" for future projects they will be hosting as well as to Pangaea - Mike Horn, to fund for the future Pangaea Borneo Projects in the upcoming months. In total we collected more than RM900 from the t-shirt sales! We also had a donation box that went around for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami victims, in which we were able to collect RM560 in just 2-3 hours, which is fantastic!
Overall it was a productive night, full of music, food, fun and eco-goodness. I find it incredible how my original plan was to have just around 20 friends celebrate Earth Hour together at the Padang Kota Field, however, what started off as a small idea bloomed into a huge successful Youth Fest, impacting and creating awareness among the Malaysian Youth and Kota Damansara Community. This whole experience has shown me how ANYONE, no matter how young or old you are, can make a difference (that means You!), and that even the smallest of ideas can make a HUGE Difference!! Like this quote i really like, "Every world changing idea, is the result of a moment's inspiration". I hope this event can inspire all those young people out there, that anything really is possible, you just got to try or you'll never know what's possible!
Last but not least, i want to say thank you, to all my friends and the organisations that helped make this Event as successful as it was, this wouldn't be possible without all of you! And a HUUUGGGEEEE Thank You to Michael Scholl and the whole Mike Horn team, without you guys, I wouldn't even have the confidence or motivation to pull this whole event off! :D
Here are the links to the online publications/articles regarding this event, check them out! :)
http://frogandprincess.wordpress.com
Earth Hour Youth Fest 2011 Part 1
Earth Hour Youth Fest 2011 Part 2
