Caring for environment: Lights to be switched off for an hour on March 31

This photo shows a candle light ceremony organized last year by the Ministery of Environment in lawn of Parliament House to observe the Earth Hour. PHOTO: FILE/EXPRESS

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature’s (WWF) newly appointed Earth Hour Ambassadors for the year 2012 gathered at Pearl Continental to officially inaugurate this year’s Earth Hour, albeit exactly one hour later than it was scheduled to begin. Each ambassador was escorted by students of WWF’s leading ‘Green School’, Dawood Public School, holding candles in their hands.

The dignitaries include renowned actress and comedian Bushra Ansari, hockey legend Sohail Abbas, singer and philanthropist Shehzad Roy, tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, actor Faisal Qureshi, model Nadia Hussain and singer Fawad Khan.

Once the programme got under way Shehzad Roy jokingly quipped, “the electricity goes quite frequently in Pakistan anyway, so we are already quite environmentally friendly.”

He then took on a more serious note, pleading with Sindh Environment Minister Sheikh Muhammad Afzal who was present, “we have to stop dumping sewerage from Karachi into the ocean. The government can be pushed through our pressure groups to do this much.”

WWF Pakistan President Khalid Mahmood supported Roy’s statement saying, “there are poorer countries around the world that have managed to stop dumping untreated sewerage into the ocean, Pakistan can do it too.”

Earth Hour is a symbolic action that turned into a movement for change, becoming the biggest global climate change initiative. For cynics, it represents just another campaign that extends only to the privileged and guests highlighted this issue. “We have to convey this message in Urdu as well, not just in English for the small population that speaks it,” asserted Bushra Ansari. Roy had earlier added that even the privileged community wasn’t aware of many environmental issues.

Olympic hockey star Sohail Abbas continued in a similar vein. “We should take this hour and reflect on how we live our lives,” he suggested. Nadia Hussain added to Abass’ words by saying, “I’ve realised that I have to create awareness as a mother to educate my child, as a housekeeper to educate those who work with me, and as a neighbour.”

The ambassadors were decorated with badges honouring them and the ceremony was concluded by all the guests lighting a candle in unison, to officially inaugurate the efforts for the awareness campaign that will take place over the next month until Earth Hour.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2012.