Embracing darkness - NUS celebrates Earth Hour 2009

By Chrissy Phoong

Second year, Bioengineering major


8:30pm on the 28th of March 2009 is probably the only hour in our annual calendar when being a 'turn off' is accepted as an ethical superior than being a 'turn on'. NUS had its inaugural candlelight Earth Hour event on the 28th of March 2009, a beginning of a tradition I hope would be sustained.

What started out as a regional event in Sydney by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2007 quickly became a global event in the span of two short years. This year, WWF aims to reach out to 1000 cities and Singapore is proud to be one of them. NUS pledged its support for Earth Hour 2009 in December last year during the WWF-Earth Hour Press Launch.

As a member of the Students Against Violation of the Earth , a student environmental body under the NUS Students Union, the leading green student organization in campus, I was really excited to be part of Earth Hour. I had the opportunity to assist the organising committee which consisted of NUSSU SAVE members and the Office of Environmental Sustainability staff in preparation of Earth Hour on 28 March 2009.

I helped lay the candles on the SRC field to form the alphabets 'N', 'U' and 'S' and forming the enormous word 'NUS' was no easy task. To ensure the consistency of width of the alphabets and the distribution of the candles required a tremendous amount of group coordination and organization.

At around 8pm, we started to light up the candles and 20 minutes later, we were joined by the other participants who showed their love for the campus by being part of the 'heart' in the candlelight event.



The hour we were awaiting for finally arrived when the clock struck half past eight and the SRC field was plunged into darkness as the surrounding participating facilities and departments switched off the lights that were not in use.

An extensive portion of the north east region of the Kent Ridge campus was involved in Earth Hour 2009. Some of the participants were from the NUS Alumni House, NUS Staff Club, Temasek Laboratories, Office of Estate and Development, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, University Cultural Centre, the Centre for the Arts (CFA) and the University Hall, as well as several from the Science Faculty. It was gratifying to see the NUS administration taking an active role to instill environmental stewardship amongst the NUS community.

Of course, just like what Lao Tze taught, where's there's Yin, there's Yang. There are those who are skeptical about the Earth Hour event and even brought up the irony of using candles which itself uses energy and emits carbon dioxide. Well, I do understand that Earth Hour would not produce tangible results, but Earth Hour's goal aims for a bigger agenda than just conserving energy.

With just the act of switching off the lights, Earth Hour has become the symbol of hope for climate change and it hopes to instill environmental stewardship in the hearts of everyone who cares about the environment. That simple act is a recognition of how we can each do our bit to help the environment and make that difference. Let us go beyond what Earth Hour has achieved and with a concerted effort, we can help save our environment.