Since 2007, every year in late March the world celebrates WWF’s Earth Hour with a global voluntary environmental action of switching off the lights. As part of this year’s Earth Hour global celebration slated for March 31 (8.30pm–9.30pm) people all around the globe are invited to participate in a new activity, the ‘I Will If You Will’ activity, which encourages them to make commitments and promise to do something unusual if the others will pledge to take ‘green’ actions’ to save. The new platform, created in partnership with Leo Burnett and launched at youtube.com/earthhour, is open for everyone who wishes to inspire their friends, family and just people around to set personal sustainability goals.
Photo: A snapshot of the I Will If You Will page on YouTube, www.youtube.com/earthhour
“In its sixth year, with hundreds of millions of people taking part in Earth Hour, we want to go beyond the hour to encourage positive action for the environment,” commented Earth Hour Co-Founder and Executive Director, Andy Ridley. “We have created a new element, ‘I Will If You Will’, to offer the incentive to share the dream amongst us all. The power of social media enables us to unite the global community in the endeavour to protect the planet.” To spread the word about the challenge, users can share their challenge posted on YouTube via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and email to reach as many people as possible.
The ‘I Will If You Will Initiative’ is supported by celebrities, both real and fictional, and even politicians. For instance, the President of Fiji, 70 year old Epeli Nailatikau pledged to “walk 30 kilometres to raise awareness of climate issues if businesses, non-government organisations and government departments in Fiji take clear-cut actions that will benefit our environment,” and Earth Hour Kids’ ambassador Pocoyo will “plant 20,000 trees if 20,000 people play his recycling game on EarthHour.org.”
WWF Canada is doing its part by writing the first crowd-sourced anthem for Earth Hour—creative minds are invited to create lyrics for the songs, which will express their deep love for the planet and explain why we should take care of it. The messages should be no longer than 140 characters, but the platform for submitting the text is Facebook, not Twitter. The top-ranked pieces and top ten selections from composer Andrew Huang (who will provide the melody) will make up the song.