Earth Hour is a moment of solidarity, as every year on the final Saturday of March, almost all of the world comes together for one hour to turn off non-essential electronic devices for one hour, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., as a symbolic gesture to show our commitment to our planet.

It is organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which undertook this global movement at the grass-root level to unite people worldwide and bring attention to the current ongoing environmental crisis due to anthropogenic actions that are getting worse over time progresses. Anyone can participate in Earth Hour simply by switching off unnecessary lights and other electric appliances during its duration.

Earth hour started as a small-scale lights out event in Sydney, Australia, on 31st March 2007, which was named the “Big Flick”. This motivated many other cities worldwide to do the same, like San Francisco organizing its own “Lights out” program in October 2007.

After many such successful small-scale events and programs were carried out, all the organizing committees decided to come together and plan “Earth Hour” for March 2008. The first “Earth hour” saw 35 countries and 400 cities from around the world participating in it. This number has increased to 192 countries and territories as of Earth Hour 2022.

More than 250,000 Russian residents have been inspired by this program and raised their voices of concern for their seas and forests. During Earth Hour 2013, Argentina passed a Senate bill for 3.4 million hectares of protected Marine Area in their country. Installation of solar-powered appliances in India, distribution of wood-free stoves in Madagascar, replacing tubes with LEDs in the USA.

Measures to reduce deforestation in Paraguay, the introduction of education programs in Thailand and Taiwan are just a few of the 2000+ actions taken by various regions to ease our plant’s environmental burden during Earth Hour.

The program undertaken by WWF has turned out to be quite successful in bringing much-needed global attention to the many environmental problems our planet is currently facing. It is a progressive program that shows better results each time it is carried out and will lead us to a brighter, greener, and safer future.