RAVE: Earth Hour - Small Gestures Writ Large

My rave for today has to do with Earth Hour. It took place yesterday with hundreds of millions of people all over the world switching off their lights for one hour at 8:30pm local time. I did it for the third year now.

For clips, pictures and more information on just how successful this year's Earth Hour was, please visit the official website: http://www.earthhour.org/

We have the people of Sydney to thank for this annual event. It was in 2007 that Australia's biggest city decided to raise awareness (not to mention collective consciousness) on the pressing issue of climate change by simply switching off their lights for one hour. The idea, fantastic in its sheer simplicity, not to mention 'media-savviness', caught on hugely and by the next year many millions more were doing the same all over the world.

It was a cool but lovely night here in Johannesburg. To have the candles lit for an hour and playing cards by candlelight made it quite special in its own way. I took a look outside and was disappointed to see that my most of my neighbours' lights were still ablaze. That really peeved me, although I must admit at hardly being surprised.

By the way, that is those homes that I was able to actually see into from my garden that were not totally blocked out by walls so high they could be something out of Jack and the Beanstalk as directed by Tim Burton, not to mention all that equally Burtonesque and skeletal-looking electric fencing - this is Johannesburg after all.

The lack of participation on my street I am quite sure was endemic in this country. Typical. South Africans are a mostly apathetic, self-centred and insular bunch. Especially if its about issues like this pesky thing called the environment. But let there be a call for South Africans to wear T-shirts on a Friday in support of the national rugby or soccer or cricket team and, oh boy, they come out in droves in workplaces and shopping malls across the land decked out in the national colours. Ridiculous.

But I did my bit. As did millions of others. It was a small gesture, no doubt about it. People switching off for just one hour on one day in the year is hardly going to make a significant difference to climate change. But the symbolic gesture is significant, and that is what this entire initiative should be seen as. A symbolic gesture that people all over the world are at least aware of climate change and, in their own very small way, wish to have their say. Nothing more and nothing less.

In this time of era-making cynicism and so much uncertainty about our global natural environment, I will grab and even cherish every little gesture that unites humanity in our collective quest for a better world. Earth Hour is one such gesture.