Earth Hour

Morag mailed me from Australia to tell me about earthhour.org. The idea behind Earth Hour is for everyone in Sydney to turn off their lights for one hourat 7.30pm (Australia time!) on 31st March . It's the beginning of a campaign by WWF-Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald to reduce Sydney's greenhouse emissions by 5% in 2007. And, if it's successful in Sydney, it could be the beginning of something worldwide.

There are a few things about this that strike me. First of all, it seems like a lot of fun to be part of, and yes, from that point of view, I guess it is a publicity stunt. But at the same time, even turning off lights for just one hour would save a huge amount of electricity if enough people took it up. You can imagine how impressive it would be to stand somewhere with a good view over the city, or even just the harbour, and watch as the lights suddenly all go out .

It's also an important reminder of just how our modern society is dependent on electricity and lighting, heating etc to function, and that alone should make us think.

And finally, if you ever look at those maps of light pollution (eg at www.lightpollution.it), you can see just how much we're affected by light pollution. When I was a kid, we used to live in Nigeria, in a house in the middle of nowhere. Quite often we'd just sit out on the verandah and look up at the most amazing stars. Living on a street in the UK, with streetlamps on all night, I miss that panoramic view of the stars. It makes you feel awed and humble at the same time - it reminds you just how beautiful the universe can be, and just how precious our planet is.

So, for all of these reasons, there'll be at least one small part of England where the lights will go out at 7.30pm on the 31st March. And I'll look forward to seeing how Earth Hour goes in Sydney.