Page 5 of the weekend edition of The Sydney Morning Herald was dominated by articles addressing Earth Hour which will commence in Australia at 8:30 tonight. In the past few years, Earth hour has expanded in public awareness and has been instrumental in sparking discussion on climate change. The following is an extract from an article titled ‘Earth fever takes hold across globe’.
Cities turning off their lights include Cape Town, Mexico City, Moscow, Mumbai and Istanbul.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has backed the event, which is organised by WWF Australia with the support of Fairfax Media, publisher of the Herald.
Mr Ban said it was the biggest climate change demonstration ever attempted, and urged people around the world to pressure their governments to take decisive action to cut gas emissions. “Earth Hour is a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message – they want action on climate change,” he said in his videotaped Earth Hour address.
He said Earth Hour should be seen as a message to politicians meeting in Copenhagen to agree to a global deal for action.
Published on page 6 alongside the articles on Earth Hour, were a number of articles directly and indirectly addressing climate change, including a piece on greenhouse gas burial sites found around Australia, and the impact of climate change on dust clouds in Australia. This was easily the most attention I have seen given to environmental issues in recent times, which have recieved diminished coverage in lieu of the global financial crisis. It is interesting that Earth Hour, which mobilises international public concern on climate change has sparked this renewed interest. Also interesting was that The SMH made sure to align itself with the organisers of the event demonstrating its concern over climate change and its affinity with the readers.
