Sibu marks Earth Hour
SIBU: Many material goods that we enjoy come at the expense of environmental damage and pollution.
Stating this, Charter president of Lions Club of Sibu Dudong, Kapitan Connie Loh who was also the organising chairperson added that with increase in population, demand for resources increases thereby causing more pollution.
“If we continue with our current lifestyle of consumption and overextracting natural resources without care, we wouldn’t have resources on Earth left for our future generation,” she said in her address at Earth Hour held at Sibu Gateway on Saturday night.
The event was organised by Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) in collaboration with Lions Club of Sibu Dudong and 12 other local Lions Clubs.
Earth Hour started with lightsoff from 8: 30pm till 9.30pm, officiated by chairman of SMC, Datuk Tiong Thai King who is also Dudong assemblyman followed by a children fashion show using recycled material and exhibition of recycled craft made by primary and secondary school students.
Connie added that we should change our lifestyle to protect Mother Earth.
Some easy tangible ways are reducing personal consumption and recycling.
“We all live on the same planet and share the same resources. Depletion of the Earth’s resources will impact the whole humanity, our collective quality of life, and our collective resources.
“Let us do something for Mother Earth. If we change our consumerist lifestyle and become more environmentally friendly, we can help reduce pollution and conserve resources.
Connie hoped the event would promote a recycling-based community, starting from school children to help conserve limited resources and protect the environment.
“Even though Malaysia still has a lot of land and natural resources, these should be conserved for future generations,” she added Earth Hour is an annual global event organised by World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) to encourage individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non- essential electricity for an hour from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on a specific day in March as a symbol of commitment to the planet.
It started as a lights- off event at Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has grown to include 7,000 cities and towns in 187 countries and territories to raise awareness on energy consumption and effects on the environment.