WWF’s Earth Hour takes place on Sat 30 Mar at 8.30pm. This now-global campaign encourages people to turn their lights off together to help protect the environment. If you want to join this year’s #EarthHourWales campaign Poppy Manning has a few suggestions.
Make a pledge
It might seem simple, but a personal pledge could go a long way. A million small things add up, so the more people that make them the better. A personal pledge that will echo across the world and stand alongside the symbolic and spectacular display of Earth Hour. You could pick a pledge with your friend, partner, class, office or family and #FightForYourWorld together or go it solo – you choose how you stand up for your planet.
Share your story
Whether it’s your first time participating in Earth Hour or your 10th, tell WWF what it means to you. Are you a beach clean fanatic? Have you rewilded a patch of your garden? Are you the proud adoptive mother/father of a polar bear? Get on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and send WWF and us a video or an image and be part of the conversation about climate change. Help empower others to act by using #EarthHourWales and #AwrDdaear. When we come together for Earth Hour, we show the world that our eyes are open to the threats we face, and that our voices will be heard. The truth is, everything that’s happening to our planet, the good and the bad, it’s on us – all of us.
Stargazing
Broadhaven South Beach in Pembrokeshire is home to the darkest of all Pembrokeshire’s Dark Sky Discovery Sites, which gets Milky Way-class designation. What a perfect destination to experience Earth Hour in its finest form: the skies will be clear from urban lights so finding the stars couldn’t be easier. Or, to really appreciate how urban lighting effects our skies, head to Cardiff to see which landmarks are making their stance. Whether that’s viewing it from the ground up or above, appreciating the switch off can be done around the city during the allotted time. The National Museum have already made their promise to be switching off their lights to support this global phenomenon.
Tidy Cups
Ecoffee estimates that over two {trillion} disposable coffee cups have ended up in landfill in the last 30 years. Keep Wales Tidy have teamed up with Ecoffee Cup to produce a reusable takeaway cup created with the world’s fastest-growing, most sustainable crop – bamboo fibre. Hot drinks are a big part of our everyday lives and some shops even offer a discount on drinks if you bring your own cup. Not only does buying one of these cups result in one fewer plastic cups being used, the money goes straight back into the charity to help support Wales in keeping green.
Price: £9.50. Info: www.keepwalestidy.cymru/shop/coffee-cupblue
Host A Candlelit Dinner Party
One way to enjoy Earth Hour in the warm is to invite your friends round for a candlelit dinner – creating a calm setting and saving electricity to boot. Make the meal as carbon-neutral as possible by focusing on organic vegetables and free-range proteins in your dinner, as well as using as little processed produce as you can. Reducing meat consumption and eating more plant-based foods could reduce your carbon and water footprint and help safeguard wildlife. These days, there are also plenty of eco-friendly candles as well.
Accessories – Plastic Free
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is a charity that says no to plastic. Their aim is to save our waters for the ocean creatures but also the surfers – the ocean is becoming unliveable and unsafe to surf in. By selling reusable metal straws, eco bamboo toothbrushes and reusable bamboo cutlery, its products are all free from plastic; they’re eco-friendly and all profits go back into the charity to pay for resources to carry on cleaning up beaches.
Info: www.sas.org.uk