EARTH HOUR: Cycling to spread the good message

Photo: Insight Sabah

In conjuction with the Earth Hour event,  Hyatt Regency Kinabalu and the Kota Kinabalu Cycling Association have organised a commemorative ride with the aim of raising awareness about energy conservation and lowering of carbon emissions. Some 180 cyclists from all over Sabah showed their support by taking to the roads of the city in an hour-long bike ride to spread the message.

Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Resource Development and Information Technology, Datuk Seri Dr Yee Moh Chai has attended the event and said such ride not only contributes to healthy lifestyle, but at the same time would help spread the message of energy saving and reducing carbon footprints.

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EARTH HOUR: Coral planting at Earth Hour event

Photo: Insight Sabah

 

Sutera Harbour Resort has added a conservation activity in the form of coral planting during its Earth Hour event here, last Saturday.

The resort started celebrating Earth Hour in 2007, grew bigger and by 2011 it also involved the Sabah Environment Action Centre (EAC) and the Kota Kinabalu City Hall in 2012. For this 2013 Earth Hour, the resort started on a coral planting project with the Borneo Marine Research Institute of Universiti Malaysia Sabah which providing the expertise.

The event was launched by Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun at 8.30 pm sharp. Masidi said the event was not only about switching off the light for an hour but to create awareness among the people on the importance of energy conservation in the long run. He advised to everybody to be wise in electricity consumption at home or the office by switching on lights and air conditioners only when needed. He suggested that everyone can start conserving electricity at home or the office by switching on lights and air conditioners only when needed. The minister also recommended that building architects and designers should use air conditioning systems that can be adjusted especially those with centralised systems.

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Do your bit for Earth Hour

TNB workers dropping in their forms, pledging to save energy, during the campaign launch at Wisma TNB in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: Earth Hour starts at 8.30pm today and Tenaga Nasional Bhd hopes Malaysians will put into action what they have learned about energy-saving.

This is because despite the large number of awareness campaigns about saving electricity, fewer people are putting it into practice each year.

TNB corporate affairs and communications vice-president Adelina Iskandar hopes the trend will be reversed this year and a bigger dip in electricity demand be recorded tonight.

Earth Hour is an annual worldwide event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for an hour to raise awareness about the need to act on climate change.

The event, started in 2007, is observed in 152 countries.

Adelina said that during the Earth Hour in 2009, there was a 6% (306MW) drop in electricity usage.

Last year, however, the drop was less than 1%, which is a mere 105MW.

Addelina added that the electricity saved had gradually decreased since 2009, with TNB recording 2% (203MW) that year, and 1% (113MW) in each subsequent year.

“Malaysians cannot just make pledges to conserve energy during Earth Hour.

“Your pledges must be executed because it is only then that awareness is translated into action,” she said after launching the TNB-WWF Malaysia Earth Hour 2013 awareness campaign here yesterday.

She said Malaysians could easily decrease their electricity use by adopting long-term greener habits.

These, she said, included buying five-star rated energy saving appliances, switching off unnecessary lighting and appliances as well as minimising water usage.

She urged people to try to live without creature comforts unnecessary in Malaysia's tropical climate.

“Many of our habits have been formed from watching commercials.

“We feel as though we need a comforter to sleep at night. Then when we feel hot, we turn the air-conditioner on at 16°C.

“In the morning we need hot water to shower because we feel cold,” she said, stressing that reducing energy and water consumption would have a positive effect on demand management.

WWF-Malaysia conservation director Dr Sundari Ramakrishnan was glad TNB was collaborating with the organisation to drive the Earth Hour momentum for the second year running.

Source: The Star

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Malaysia to support Earth Hour campaign again!

 

World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said Malaysia will be joining the Earth Hour campaign on March 23, 2013. This is the third time for Malaysia to join this campaign and the switching off of non-essential lights will begin at 8.30pm.

Sharma said  WWF-Malaysia, with cooperation from Universal Music Malaysia, Sunway Pyramid and DiGi Telecommunication Sdn Bhd, will organise an Earth Hour 2013 Band Contest to get more of the younger generation participation. This is an effort to bring environmental awareness through music and the five finalist bands that have the most public votes in the contest will have the opportunity to perform on the March 23 Earth Hour programme at Sunway Pyramid. He hoped this year would see an increase in participation, especially among business communities and the younger generation.

Earth Hour, a global environmental initiative which kicked off in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, is reported to be "the world's largest campaign for the planet", with more than 7,000 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories participating in the annual programme.

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