Most people recognize this as a quote from the Spider-Man movie that starred Tobey Maguire. Peter Parker’s (Maguire) Uncle Ben had told him this shortly before he died, explaining that everyone who has the power to do something has to exercise that power with responsibility.
This year’s Earth Hour theme is “Be a Superhero for the Planet: Use your power”, which is exactly what Uncle Ben had meant in the global environmental context. Spider-Man is Earth Hour’s superhero ambassador.
In Zamboanga City last Saturday (March 29), hundreds of residents composed of government and non-government workers, police personnel, students and night-outers who regularly flock at the Paseo del Mar for a weekend night out exercised such power and joined in the forming of a giant number “60+”, signifying their support to “El Hora de Planeta”, and sending a message to do everything to save the world.
As the lights were turned off at 8:30, candles were lit, illuminating the large human formation – showing the world that Zamboangueños are one with the world in its message of mitigating climate change and global warming.
“We are here to show that we really care, that we want to get involved,” told Engr. Reynaldo Gonzales of the Office of the City Environment and Natural Resources (OCENR) to the mass of people gathered.
“Every one of us can do something to save our planet,” he said.
According to Gonzales, Zamboanga has been supporting the Earth Hour for the last seven years, since 2008, when it was first introduced by the World Wide Fund (WWF). “We have always been united with the whole world for the Earth Hour, and we want to send a very strong message for action to address climate change in the planet.”
Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Cesar Iturralde urged residents to do their part in saving the environment by going beyond the sixty minutes. “We cannot save the world overnight, much less in one hour. As individuals, we can contribute in the global movement to fight for our future and children’s future,” he said. “The simple acts we do like saving electricity, recycling, and others go a long way.”
During the Earth Hour, cities from all over the world show their support to combat climate change by switching off non-essential lights for one hour or more. It is a yearly advocacy aimed at sending a very strong message to policy-makers that it is time to make a change, and that everything we do should be contributory to saving the environment and the planet – the only home that we have.
The advocacies include donations to fund environmental projects, the promotion of environment-friendly legislation, and an awareness campaign on what each of us can do to save the planet.
Earth Hour, according to the WWF is the world’s biggest environmental campaign. It was first launched in Sydney, Australia in 2007, with about 2 million locals participating. It has grown to involve 7,000 cities today, with millions of individual supporters from all over the world.