8:30am to 4:30pm
Venue: TR+ 49 & TR+ 50 (Business Library Block) and HDB Jurong East
Climate change is a global concern. One of the more pressing issues is global warming. An event that brings together individuals from over a hundred nations (170 this year) to combat this issue is Earth Hour. Earthlink NTU pioneered its own Earth Hour campaign alongside a workshop with the objective to raise awareness on climate change and educate individuals on actions that we would all undertake everyday to do our part in combatting it.
Earth Hour is a worldwide movement that encourages individuals to reduce energy consumption. It asks of individuals to reduce their carbon emission by turning off lights from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on the last Saturday of March as a symbol of commitment to the planet. It was first held in 2007 in Sydney, Australia and over the years has grown in scale more than 170 countries showed their commitment this year. This year, the tagline for the global campaign was Change Climate Change , as World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recognized the worsening situation despite the ongoing efforts in recent years.
As a highly developed economy, Singapore contributes its share in carbon emission. In fact, carbon emission per person in Singapore is amongst one of the highest in the world according to a study in 2011, surpassing even the likes of UK and China. To make matters worse, Singapore, as an island city is extremely vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change such as floods. Thus in conjunction with the global movement, Earthlink had organized its very own Earth Hour campaign which included a workshop to enlighten the participants on environmental issues, more specifically, climate change, as well as an outreach session during which the members and some volunteers were engaged in encouraging Singapore residents in HDB flats to follow the act of switching off unnecessary lights. The residents were briefly elaborated on the consequences of climate change in Singapore s context, and what can they do to return the nature a favor. For instance, replacing the types of electrical appliances with their energy saving counterparts. As an appreciation token, the residents were also handed out cactus.