Words Jihan Seoud and Alia Fawaz

The Earth Hour is a worldwide movement. 

This year, 170 countries including 1,200 landmarks 

and close to 40 UNESCO world heritage sites turned lights off for an hour to participate in the movement. 

Earth Hour is a worldwide event during which buildings turn off the electricity (in our case generators, too) for one hour on a Saturday in March. Earth Hour is a global environmental initiative that is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It mobilizes hundreds of millions of people to make a difference for the planet. Its core vision is to create an environmental impact by utilizing the power of the crowd. Every March, Earth Hour celebrates the symbolic “lights off” hour, which has become a mass global event involving more than 162 countries and 7,000 cities.

G (an NGO concerned with the environment) celebrated Earth Hour’s 10th anniversary with a musical concert at Uberhaus on the Beirut waterfront on March 19. It was attended by key dignitaries, including H.E. Abdelmuttaleb Hinnawi, the Minister of Sports and Youth in Lebanon, Ms. Sigrid Kaag, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, and Mr. Marcello Mori, minister counselor, head of the Sustainable Development Section of the delegation of the European Union to Lebanon.

The event shed light on environmental issues by airing several documentaries and by being a three zeros event:

Zero Energy: All of the energy came from solar panels that were installed at the venue.

Zero Waste: All of the waste from the event was recycled.

Zero Carbon: All of the carbon that was emitted by the five-minute live broadcasting generator will be offset by planting the Earth Hour Lebanon 2016 forest on March 26.

Although Earth Hour’s message aims to reach everyone, it was remarkable that most of the 1,700 attendees were young people. MTV Lebanon broadcast the turning off of the lights live during its prime news. Many corporations and institutions in Lebanon turned off their lights for Earth Hour, including the Grand Serail, the Port of Byblos, ABC Mall, the Alfa Building, the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, the Chamber of Commerce, Virgin Megastore, and BankMed.

Earth Hours