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ON SATURDAY, The Straits Times carried a report, 'Earth gets 60 minutes' rest', to introduce the first global Earth Hour and urge Singaporeans to turn off their lights for an hour that night as a show of support. The next day, The Sunday Times reported that participation in Earth Hour by corporations here saved enough energy to power a four-room flat for a year. This is a commendable achievement.
However, the same Sunday report, 'Earth Hour gets lukewarm response', lamented that not many people here were receptive to the lights-out idea. This apathy is not surprising when local efforts were largely relegated to individuals, grassroots organisations and businesses. Although the Earth Hour website listed Singapore as a supporting city, there was no effort to promote it by any government agency.
It was also unfortunate that the organisers of the Singapore Formula One night race chose to demonstrate their lighting system 30 minutes before the start of Earth Hour. This irony is further illuminated by the photo accompanying The Sunday Times story, 'Lights up, thumbs up', which shows the F1 lighting system demo against the backdrop of a darkened Raffles City, which had turned off its fa�ade lighting to support Earth Hour. The F1 event was attended by a senior minister of state, who reportedly gave it the thumbs-up, and tourism officials.
Furthermore, is it really necessary for the F1 lights to be switched on daily from 7pm to midnight for a week simply for public viewing? I wonder how much of the 6,800kWh saved by local Earth Hour efforts will be used to power this publicity stunt.
Kelvin Tan Kheng Liang
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