Earth Hour in the shadow of the energy crisis

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, and has now grown into a global movement: last year, more than 118 countries and territories joined the one-hour switch-off. Over the past two decades, it has not only served as an awareness-raising campaign, but has also helped achieve tangible results – from the creation of nature reserves to supporting environmental regulations.

“Give the Earth an hour!” – Earth Hour encourages this year as well, and the message is becoming more urgent every year: according to the WWF’s Living Planet Report, published every two years, the natural world is in serious crisis, with animal species populations declining dramatically. The rapid pace of climate change and the decline in biodiversity increasingly threaten our own future, and the current global conflicts and the security of energy supply are even more encouraging: we must take energy-conscious steps that work in harmony with nature at the international, national and individual levels.

In Hungary, many municipalities have joined the symbolic switch-off every year since 2008 – as is customary, Budapest will also switch off its decorative lights for one hour on March 28 at 8:30 p.m. The one-hour switch-off is also an important awareness-raising campaign in our country, which sends the message that we need to live more environmentally conscious lives.

For example, increasing energy efficiency is critically important if we want cleaner air and a more livable environment around us. “The energy crisis unfolding before our eyes and deepening will encourage many to take action again, but even without geopolitical tensions, we must realize that the only way we can choose is to rationalize our energy consumption individually and use sustainable and renewable energy sources – such as solar and wind energy, biogas or geothermal energy – in places with low ecological risk on a national level. By turning off the lights as a symbolic gesture, our goal is to light a spark in the minds of many,” emphasizes Csaba Csontos, WWF Hungary’s climate protection program manager. “Even the world’s most energy-efficient technologies are only as valuable as we use them consciously and economically. Hungary has excellent and largely untapped potential in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable resources and attitude formation. Therefore, the message of Earth Hour is particularly valid and timely in our country,” adds the expert.

At an individual level, we have many opportunities to make our homes more energy-efficient: proper insulation and doors and windows, preferring heat pump heating, using dry firewood when burning wood, or even instead of leaving windows open for long periods of time, repeatedly ventilating them briefly, or shading our buildings with plants in the summer are all practices that are beneficial not only to our environment, but also to our wallets.

This year, give the Earth an hour! Do something good for nature according to your own means: relax in nature, learn more about the wildlife around you, reduce your environmental impact or inspire others to take action! You can join the campaign on the foldoraja.hu page, which will also allow you to participate in a prize draw.

The initiative has now become a symbol of hope and unity: it reminds us that together we can achieve real change. The goal of the jubilee, 20th Earth Hour is to inspire more people than ever to take action – in one hour, for the Earth.