Link to article: https://www.earthhour.org/our-mission

Learn why we started and discover why our mission and your actions matter more than ever.

History of the Hour

Started by WWF and partners as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour is now one of the world’s largest grassroots movements for the environment. Held every year on the last Saturday of March, Earth Hour engages millions of people in more than 180 countries and territories, switching off their lights to show support for our planet.

But Earth Hour goes far beyond the symbolic action of switching off – it has become a catalyst for positive environmental impact, driving major legislative changes by harnessing the power of the people and collective action.

Earth Hour is open-source and we welcome everyone, anyone, to take part and help amplify our mission to unite people to protect our planet.

Notice that the first sentence is written in past tense because it is talking about a set point in time when the idea began. It quickly changes to present tense because it happens every year. Repeated actions (every day/week/month/year) use present tense. You’ll also see present continuous (switching, harnessing) being used to talk about an action that is happening throughout a larger moment (the entire event).

Power of the people/Collective action – means an action taken together by a group of people to make something better and achieve a common goal Open-source – often used with software, but the larger meaning being anything that is open for use by anyone and can be changed as the user wishes.

Amplify– to add detail or enlarge upon an idea

Our mission: Then and Now

In 2007, we encouraged people around the world to switch off their lights to call attention to climate change. More than a decade later, the climate crisis remains, made worse by another urgent threat: the rapid loss of biodiversity and nature.

Natural systems are vital for all our futures – and yet, the rate of global loss of nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history. Nature not only provides us food, water, clean air, and other services worth over US$125 trillion a year – it is also one of our strongest allies against climate change. Protecting nature is one of the most immediate, powerful, and cost-effective solutions to the climate crisis.

Today, Earth Hour aims to increase awareness and spark global conversations on protecting nature not only to combat the climate crisis, but to ensure our own health, happiness, prosperity and even survival.

(to) Call attention to – to make someone notice a person or thing

Urgent – needing immediate action or attention

Unprecedented – never done before

Ally (singular)/Allies (plural) – commonly used with military and governments, it can be used to mean any type of relationship where you have agreed to help each other

Prosperity – doing well financially, successful

2022: The year that counts

This coming April, world leaders will be coming together to attend a critical United Nations conference on nature & biodiversity.

Originally scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this conference – the UN CBD COP 15 (UN Convention on Biological Diversity 15th Conference of the Parties) – presents an unmissable opportunity to shape the next decade and beyond, creating a brighter, healthier, more sustainable future. But this can only happen if world leaders at this conference establish an ambitious and binding global commitment – similar to the Paris Agreement, but for nature – to reverse nature and biodiversity loss by 2030.

And why 2030? Nature is not only our biggest provider – it’s also one of our strongest allies against the climate crisis. Unless world leaders urgently step up their efforts to protect nature, global temperatures could rise above the 1.5 degree Celsius limit set by the Paris agreement as early as 2030, a decade earlier than previously expected. Any further increase in temperatures could mean irreversible damage to our planet.

Happening just weeks before the CBD COP 15, Earth Hour is a crucial opportunity to put the spotlight on this conference and build the global momentum needed to pressure world leaders into action.

When a period of time is shared at the beginning of a sentence as a fragment, it is followed by a comma. For example: This coming April, Originally scheduled for 2020…, Happening just weeks before the CBD COP 15,

Momentum – the force of a moving object (physics)

Sustainability has become a popular word in the last decade. Also meaning “able to be maintained at a certain rate or level,” it is used by the environmental movement to talk about keeping an environmental balance by not using too many natural resources. Some think that the word has become so overused that it is meaningless. Read more about that here: https://www.ahainc.com/blog/word-sustainability-has-lost-its-meaning/

What do you think?