Support 2011 Earth Hour on 26 March

Support 2011 Earth Hour on 26 March, 

Press statement by Dr Cheah Soon Hai,

Gerakan head of central bureau on environment, safety and quality of life and Derga State Assemblyman

                                                                                                   March 23, 2011

Since the launching of the first Earth Hour which took place in Sydney in March 31, 2007, the event which is meant to create environmental awareness turned international in the following year. Earth Hour was held at an international level on 28th March, 2008 and Malaysia is one of the participating nation. The number of participating countries started with 35 countries participating in the first year and the number increased every year hitting a total 128 participating countries in 2010. This year is the fourth Earth Hour year and it will be held on the 26th of March（Saturday ）from 8.30 pm till 9.30 pm (local time) internationally.

Gerakan head of central bureau on environment, safety and quality of life, Dr Cheah Soon Hai urges the public to support this meaningful event by switching off lights and any electrical equipment which are not in use for one hour on the Earth Hour day.  He said, the objective of this event is to remind people of the importance of taking care of our planet Earth. He said that it requires international effort to protect our Mother Nature from further damage due to excessive usage of natural resources.

Dr Chesh Soon Hai is also Derga State Assemblyman. He said, last year’s Earth Hour had resulted in more than 650 megawatts of saved electricity in our country. If one kilowatt is what one home needs for one hour, then 650 megawatts would be able to sustain 650,000 homes for one hour! And the amount of money saved is around RM248,000 just in that one hour alone.

He also said, if we could save that much of electricity and money in just one hour, imagine how much electricity and money we could save in one year if we can do this in every other day. Dr Cheah said, we should cut down on the usage and wastage of electricity. It can help to reduce environmental pollution and protect the environment in the sense that the resources used to produce the amount of electricity is reduced, so we should make it a habit to save electricity in our daily life, and for that matter, we should be mindful when we use other resources such as water as well.