Earth Hour is a mere publicity stunt

Marcus writes ... 

I READ with amazement and irony the efforts of WWF Malaysia to latch on to the Earth Hour event and all the celebrities, media and corporations that have come up in support.

It is amazing that people are so easily taken in by a mere publicity stunt that fails at the very essence. Turning off our lights for one hour on one designated day of the year to save our planet surely is a PR event at best.

It shames the thousands of devoted people, government bodies, scientists and environmentalists that have for years been working on finding real solutions to address this global concern. Malaysians should see past this gimmick by international NGOs and start changing their lifestyles. Surely we can be more proactive and not be fed by an agenda of international bodies.

Why don’t we implement power conservation programmes, ride public transport on certain days in a month, car pool, etc?

It is also ironic that the organiser, WWF Malaysia, up until very recently, did not even have a climate change programme to begin with when all others (even local groups and individuals) have been persistent in their pleas for Malaysians to take action.

Remember, our leaders signed the Kyoto Protocol and there has been concerted movement towards reaching solutions. Please let us all be enlightened and move away from celebrations and gimmicks.

MARCUS,

Petaling Jaya.

Linundus comments: In Sabah, there is already an irregular power failure. Recently, SESB has already issued a statement in the local paper to warn the public that there will be a power shedding execise before the end of this month to facilitate maintenance and repairs to the Tenom Pangi Hydro damaged by heavy rainfall that caused the Padas River to swell. To be fair to all, let SESB turn off the Power from Tenom Pangi Hydro for one hour from 8.30pm when we observe the Earth Hour. After all, we have gotten used to power failure anyway.