Conserving power will require a much more sustained effort than just switching off lights.
Today, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, is Earth Hour, a global effort to show solidarity against global warming. Those supporting the cause have been asked to switch off their lights during this time.
This initiative is similar to the Batti Bandh campaign held last year in Mumbai. Earth Hour, on the other hand, is a worldwide campaign. But how will switching off your lights for one hour help? Is it about conserving energy? Will it make a tangible difference?
Neil Quraishy, one of the people behind Batti Bandh, says that the campaign helped raise awareness amongst people and that there was a drop of 4.3 million watts on the day the campaign was held as compared to the city's daily electricity consumption.
But reducing consumption on one day doesn’t really lead to saving power or even lesser emissions since there is no change in the amount of electricity produced. Only a sustained drop in demand by consumers will push the power generating companies to produce less power (and hence burn less fuel).
“I know that one hour of switching off the lights may not solve the continuous power cut problems, but our message is to be united for climate change,” says Aarti Khosla, team leader, Earth Hour India.
According to experts, any action like this needs to be coordinated with the power supplying agencies since a sudden drop in demand leads to complications in the grid. Rangan Banerjee, head of the department of energy science and engineering, IIT, agrees that switching off the lights will only help if done consistently over a period of time. “But such initiatives create awareness which is necessary too,” he adds.
Earth Hour is targeted at students and young professionals, says Khosla, Earth Hour India’s team leader. According to her, Earth Hour India has reached out to two lakh students in Delhi and Mumbai, and companies like Wipro, Infosys, HSBC, Nokia, HDFC, PVR, RBI and Air India have pledged their support.
Global warming is a reality staring us in the face and Earth Hour is an attempt to create awareness. As Batti Bandh's Quraishy puts it, “A movement starts at an individual level.”
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