An hour to help the Earth

In addition, the Island’s authorities are devoting much time and effort to projects deigned to encourage the recycling of materials ranging from waste paper to aluminium cans.

There is, however, another important area in which people from all walks of life can play a significant part in the drive to protect the environment and safeguard resources. Energy and how we use it is also an issue, but far too many individuals who conscientiously take relevant categories of household waste to recycling centres or segregate their rubbish for collection will unthinkingly leave lights and heating on unnecessarily.

To help focus attention on this problem, Jersey is being asked to join a World Wildlife Fund for Nature campaign which encourages people around the globe to switch off all their lights for an hour. If the campaign is successful – and previous exercises in the same vein suggest that it will be – international landmarks such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and the Coliseum in Rome will go dark.

The WWF campaign, known as Earth Hour, now aims to involve a billion people on 28 March, but it has already scored successes. The idea first became a reality in 2007 in Australia, when 2.2 million homes and businesses took part.

There is, of course, a symbolic element in the Earth Hour project. Although a substantial amount of energy will be saved if sufficient numbers of lights are switched off, the underlying plan is to encourage the world to think more carefully about its use of electricity and other power sources and the contribution they make to damaging carbon emissions and global warming.

As Environment Minister Freddie Cohen, who is ‘100 per cent’ behind the WWF campaign, has pointed out, Jersey has a great deal to learn about energy conservation. Ordinary householders, businesses and the States tend to be profligate in their use of power – as lights blazing out from unoccupied rooms in private homes and office blocks so often attest.

No one wants to impose a compulsory blackout, but if we are to take our environmental responsibilities seriously, less wasteful attitudes – and participation in Earth Day – are clearly in order.