Istanbul Medeniyet University turned off the lights on March 25, 2023 Saturday evening for Earth Hour awareness. Joining the awareness raising movement by responding the call of IMU Sustainability Office, our university switched off the lights in IMU Ziraat Bank Library, the largest university library in Turkey, at the Earth Hour from 20.30 to 21.30 and invited its staff and students to give an hour of their Saturday night for Earth, spending 60 minutes doing something – anything – positive for the planet.
To raise awareness about Earth Hour, IMU Sustainability Office also posted information on its instagram account about what the Earth Hour is and how people from all around the world join the events and the audience were given suggestions on what to do on Earth Hour for the good of the planet.
Since it was first incorporated into the sustainability agenda in 2007, “Earth Hour” has been known for the “lights off” moment, with individuals from around the globe switching off their lights to show symbolic support for the planet and to raise awareness of the environmental issues affecting it.
More than 15 years later, we are now at a tipping point with our climate and nature crises, putting at risk the fate of our one home and all our futures. We are on course to breach by 2030 the 1.5°C global temperature increase limit set by the Paris Climate Agreement, and nature is also under severe threat. And in the meantime, we have faced alarming and unprecedented rates of loss globally. Therefore, the next 7 years until the 2030 agenda are crucial to all our futures, when we have to stay under the 1.5°C climate threshold to avoid irreversible damage to our planet, and we need to reverse nature loss by 2030, ending the decade with more nature and biodiversity than we started. To make this happen, communities, businesses, governments, and all of us must urgently step up our efforts.
With over 190 countries and more than 85,000 individuals pledged to join, Earth Hour can turn a single hour that we will spend individually into thousands and millions of hours of action and awareness, creating a domino effect of impact that continues well beyond the 60 minutes. The Biggest Hour for Earth becomes a precious moment of unity, reminding the world that our one shared home needs our help and that we all can – and must – play a part in protecting it.
