EARTH HOUR, MARCH 28 2009

Yes, the day is here, March 28th 2009. The day when ordinary people like you and I have a chance to show others less concerned or unaware of global warming how we care about our beautiful, wonderous world, the many species that inhabit it and how the time has come to preserve it for future generations.

For over 30 years, politicians have talked, argued and theorized about climate change but the truth is very little has been done to make the real and effective changes required to stem the tide of global warming.

In democracies we elected people who we thought would act in our best interests but, more often than not, those interests were submerged under a blanket of short term political and economic demands. In dictatorships the word of leaders was, and is, law; the voices of people suppressed by the will of those who govern.

But I ask you - what needs, wants, demands are more important than the survival of the human race?

Are we, the people, as guilty as our leaders? Perhaps not, but the luxuries we have enjoyed at the expense of nature be it through ignorance or greed make us all culpable to some degree. And the time has now come when every one of us has to contribute to clawing the world back from the precipice on which it now stands.

The clock is ticking.

Nature will not wait for further debate. It will not slow hand clap us as we pontificate; it will seek a bloody and exacting revenge. Millions, perhaps billions, will die if we do not halt the progress of global warming.

The clock is ticking.

We must vocalize to individuals, businesses and governments that apathy will no longer be tolerated. We must curb fossil fuel emissions, we must use and develop sources of renewable energy. We must work for the greater good of mankind.

The clock is ticking.

I urge you today to support Earth Hour by switching off your lights at 8.30pm local time. Please tell your colleagues, friends and neighbours and most importantly make people understand why you are doing it.

I leave you with these words from the inaugural address of President John F Kennedy in 1961. Whilst they are the words from another generation, they seem just as relevant today in the context of the perils we face from global warming.

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

John. F. Kennedy.

Climate change is a global problem. It is not just about freedom from communism, oppression and war. It is about the freedom from
starvation and poverty. So ask not what the earth can do for you but
what you can do for the earth. Ask not what the world will do for you,but what you will do for the survival of man.

Jane

If you would like to learn more about global warming I urge you to read Global Warning The Last Chance for Change which I review here on The View From Here Literary Magazine.