A lot has been made about the recently concluded “Earth Hour” (EH). On the one hand were the ‘wanna-do-something-for-EH’ enthusiasts, and on the other, were the ‘who-cares’ skeptics. ‘How would switching off the lights for just one hour save the environment?’ or ‘Why only one hour in a year to care for the Earth?’ were some of their queries.

True, the level of atmosphere gases is not going to dramatically come down in that one hour or the phenomenon that is global warming will not become a thing of the past. However, those are not even the objectives of EH organizers or any of the participants – individuals, establishments or countries – then where do those questions come from?

Commenting on Saudi Arabia’s first time participation in EH, Andy Ridley, executive director, Earth Hour Global, said to Saudi Gazette: “We need everyone to be part of the solution and think about conserving energy for the future, that’s why engaging with the people of Saudi Arabia is so important”.

And if not anything else, THINKING, is what EH did to me. At 9:30 P.M., as I went to switch on the lights of the hall and the main door area of my house, after earlier turning them off for EH, a thought crossed my mind: Do I really need to turn ‘em on? Naah! And I didn’t. If I could do without them for an hour, I might as well do without them until I really need them.

IF EH – just the concept of it irrespective of whether you observed it or not – made you sit up and think (okay, not literally) about how much resources (a lot!) we consume in our daily lives and how much of that can be done without (the non-essentials), then I think its purpose is met.

For my family and I, as we sat in a partially lit room during EH, it was a feel-good factor to be part of something that thousands of people across the world were part of.

However, there is an awareness deficient in society here – about the concepts of both EH, and more importantly, energy conservation – which needs to be addressed. A good number of people actually thought and believed that it was going to be a nation-wide blackout on the 27th!

It’s really the message of Earth Hour that matters, if not the event per se.

(Check out http://www.earthhourjeddah.blogspot.com for some glimpses - pictures and videos - of what happened during EH in Jeddah.)