GENERAL LAKE CELEBRATES EARTH HOUR

ON MARCH 29TH, students and staff will turn off the lights at General Lake Public school in recognition of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. It showed that everyone, from children to CEOs and politicians, has the power to change the world we live in.

In 2008, the plan was to spread Earth Hour to the rest of Australia but there was an appetite to expand the movement beyond that country’s borders. Canada’s own City of Toronto was the first to sign up and it wasn’t long before 35 countries and almost 400 cities and towns followed suit. It said something compelling to the world: that the climate challenges facing our planet are so significant that change needs to be global.

With the invitation to ‘switch off’ extended to everyone, WWF’s Earth Hour quickly became an annual global event. It’s scheduled on the last Saturday of every March – closely coinciding with the equinox to ensure most cities are in darkness as it rolls out around the Earth.

This year Earth hour occurs on Saturday, March 31 at 8:30 pm.