Posted on April, 07 2012

I am writing this as the biggest ever Earth Hour is only 24 hours away from starting in Fiji. This year, a record 147 countries and territories are preparing to send a united message that now is the time to take action for the planet. Hundreds of landmarks across more than 5,000 cities and towns will go dark at 8:30PM on Saturday local time, with Libya, Algeria, Bhutan and French Guinea among those participating for the first time. Earth Hour began in 2007 as a one-city initiative in Sydney, Australia and has since grown to be the world's largest voluntary action for the environment.

Monday, I received a fantastic event description from Kedonganan Village, Jimbaran Bay, Bali, where the voluntary members of the Turtle Guard, the Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University, will participate in the first ever Coral Triangle Day on June 9. This morning I was on a call with colleagues from the USAID sponsored Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP) program, the USCTI program integrators and the partner liaison from the CTI-CFF secretariat discussing the great possibilities they see to motivate participation of community groups, dive clubs, local NGOs, and students for the Coral Triangle day in June. Tomorrow night I will see the setup at Karma hotel in Seminyak, Bali, for a "warming-up" slide show with photos by Yogi and Stella Freund on April 27 and for their own Coral Triangle Day participation plans.

This sort of civil society actions are occurring more and more, and show that people care, and want to be engaged for a good cause. Criticism that one hour is not enough to save the planet, or one day of ocean-related activities will not change overfishing or reduce the plastic soup floating around the Pacific is acknowledged, but being closely involved in the preparations of Coral Triangle Day and having received tweets and emails and blog updates from the Earth Hour folk, I know that these events are much more than that. Months prior to such events, people come together to talk about their passion and concern, weeks before the events groups and individuals make commitments to the cause in public, and days before the event, thousands of people (or millions in case of Earth Hour) start to get ready for their activity in the event. Days and weeks afterwards, people visit the Earth Hour website to check whether their action was profiled, and months after the event, people start talking about what they will do next year.

Such attention to a critical issue like climate change and such a potential gathering of individuals and groups for Coral Triangle Day can have a significant positive impact. I believe it’s time for NGOs and others to step away from micro-managing society actions and instead profiling and spotlighting broad public participation as much as possible. It's time for policy makers to acknowledge that their voters and society cares.