message from andy

7/21/2019 Message From Andy

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`ANDY RIDLEY SPEECH

EARTH HOUR GLOBAL MEDIA LAUNCH

27 FEBRUARY 2013

(Earth Hour 2013 Official Video)

Message from Andy Ridley, CEO & Co-Founder of Earth Hour

Six years ago, we started this project - Earth Hour. It has grown to become theworld’s largest mass participation event in history.

From one city to over 7,000.

From one country to seven continents.

From two million to hundreds of millions of people.

But we started Earth Hour to do more than lights off.

Earth Hour was created

• To unite people and show our desire to protect the planet.

•

To encourage and empower people to take action beyond the hour itself

• Create an interconnected global community and build on the momentum andaction for a sustainable future

There’s a big difference between now and 2007 when the first Earth Hour took placein Sydney, Australia. Back then, climate change to many of us was an issue.Something far away from our lives. Today, there are no more genuine debates onclimate change. The dire effects of a warming planet are no longer ambiguous or far-fetched. We – all of us in this room - have personally experienced or at the veryleast, have family and friends who have been affected by the extreme weather and

changes in our environment. From the fires and floods in Australia, to the thousandswho are having health problems and worse because of the smog in China. Floods inIndonesia, and the 65 billion dollar cost of Hurricane Sandy in the US.

Climate change and what we are doing to our environment now affects all our lives.

Seven years ago, economist Lord Nicholas Stern spelled out the consequences offailing to act on climate change. In his report for the British Government he saidoverall costs of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% global GDPeach year, now and forever. He also pegged a 75% chance that global temperatureswould rise between two and three degrees above the long-term average.



Just a month ago, at the Davos World Economic Forrum this is what he had to say:

"I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse."

Stern said that he believes we are on track for ‘something like four’ degrees above

the average, not between two and three degrees.

Recently appointed President of The World Bank Jim Yong Kim, again at Davos, haspointed out the need to put climate change on the agenda. Citing it as one of thebiggest challenges to social justice today.

Common sense tells us that there’s no more putting it off.

When we started out Earth Hour, it was always about hope, not fear. In 25 days, onMarch 23, at 8.30pm, hundreds of millions of people – from school kids to CEOs,from mayors to Presidents – will participate in Earth Hour. This is the first generation

in history with the power to connect behind a common purpose. There can be nogreater common purpose than the preservation of our planet. We have a uniqueopportunity to take this challenge in our own hands.

We’re under no illusion on how great this challenge is. And in many ways it can beoverwhelming. Let me introduce you to teenagers Mohammad Nattah from Tripoliand Muhammad Bugashata from Benghazi in Libya.

Mohammad Nattah had wanted to organize an Earth Hour event in 2011 but he wasin the army fighting in the civil war against Muammar Gaddafi. After the war,Mohammad Nattah contacted us on social media about coordinating Earth Hour inTripoli. At the same time Muhammad Bugashata created the Earth Hour LibyaFacebook group.

We put them in contact with each other and they ended up planning Libya’s first everEarth Hour events. With the help of the Scout movement and local businesses, thiswas the catalyst for the first environmental movement to take place in Libya post–Gaddafi. In 2013, Earth Hour will not only happen in Tripoli and Benghazi but also inthree other cities and maybe more.

Their determination to do something for the planet in the face of enormous

obstacles, is testament to their courage, passion, the power of community and theclever use of social media.

Then there’s Nathi Mzileni from Swaziland who back in 2010 at the age of 15 wentdoor-to-door asking why people weren’t switching their lights off for Earth Hour. Hethen sent our team an impassioned email determined to get his home nation on theEarth Hour map in 2011. We asked him if he would like to organize Earth Hour inSwaziland and with the help of his schoolmates, they started the first Earth Hour intheir country.

In 2012, Nathi was able to gather support from three government departments for

Earth Hour. And this year, he secured the nation's biggest newspaper and enlistedsupport from one of the telecommunications companies in the country.



These are the life blood of Earth Hour. People who, time and time again, haveproven that if you believe in something strongly enough, you can achieve amazingthings.

Earth Hour has become so much more than lights off. In 2012, as part of our plan togo far beyond the hour, we started another element to Earth Hour called 'I Will If YouWill' and amazing things started to happen.

In Russia, the WWF Earth Hour team built a petition base of more than 120,000people to support legislative change on marine protection against oil spills –legislation that was passed within nine months after seven years of trying.

In Uganda, we started the first Earth Hour forest spanning 2700 hectares ofdegraded land and now individuals, government officials, and businesses areworking to fill it with at least half a million indigenous trees.

In Botswana, the Former President Mr. Festus Mogae has committed to plant amillion trees over the next four years starting with 100,000 trees in a severelydegraded area called Goodhope.

Girl Scouts in the US have come onboard through their Save Energy Project with35,000 Girls Scouts installed 132,141 energy efficient light bulbs in homes andcommunity centres. The impact is staggering: 77,553,119 pounds of CO2 emissionseliminated, the equivalent to the CO2 sequestration from planting 7,495 acres oftrees per year.

And those are just some of the commitments from last year.

This year, emboldened by their successful feat, WWF’s Earth Hour in Russia aims tosecure over 100,000 signatures for amendments to the current forest legislation. Ifsuccessful, it will return a ban on industrial logging which will give better protection toan area twice the size of France.

In Argentina, Earth Hour will mobilize thousands of citizens to help champion thepassing of a Senate bill to make 3.4 million-hectare Banco Burwood the biggestmarine protected area in the country.

From the small hotel in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, to the whole Vegas strip, localbusinesses, governments, and the community are part of Earth Hour. Everyone canbe a part in making a change to the world we live in.

Every action counts. Big and small.

To imagine change takes momentum, it takes patience, it takes persistence.

But you see the top one there? That’s already happening in France where a new lawwill require all shops and offices to switch off their lights after 1am starting this July toimprove energy efficiency and reduce waste. This will cut carbon dioxide by 250,000



tons a year and save the equivalent of the annual consumption of 750,000households.

Explorer Robert Swan, the first man to walk to both Poles, once said: “The greatestthreat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

Earth Hour was built for you. Earth Hour belongs to you. Use Earth Hour to mobiliseyourself, your friends, your family, your organization. Do an I Will If You Will. Takepart in the hour itself.

End

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