Earth at Night picture courtesy NOAA
This opinion piece was sent to the media by WWF and the South African civil rights leader/Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is published in full as a public service on the occasion of Earth Hour 2009.
By Archbishop Desmond Tutu & James Leape, Director General, WWF International
This coming Saturday, hundreds of millions of people around the world will join together in what’s being described as a vote for the planet. From New York to Beijing, from Cape Town to Paris, citizens will turn their lights off for sixty minutes to demand action on climate change.
Earth Hour is a unique opportunity for us all to send a message to the world’s leaders that 2009 is the year for a global deal to tackle global warming.
We are used to seeing climate change discussed in both environmental and economic terms. The impacts on the planet are all too obvious – melting polar ice caps, drought and rising sea levels have become the depressing staple of our daily news for several years.