Last night, Amman joined the list of cities all around the world and turned its lights off in honor of Earth Hour, a WWF initiative to raise awareness about global warming. Here’s a picture of the Capital that I took last night as it was plunged into darkness.
Ok, ok, so that picture was totally photoshopped. But hey, you never know, maybe someday Amman, or any other city in the Arab world (including its citizens) will take the issue of global warming seriously. And that was the point of this post.
(Maybe I should send a letter to Omar Maani or even Khalid Irani)
For those who noticed, Google went dark for awhile too…
Anyways, here’s a list of the cities that did join in on all the fun, and you can look at all the pictures here, that include my second home: Toronto.
* Aalborg
* Aarhus
* Adelaide
* Atlanta
* Bangkok
* Bogota
* Brisbane
* Canberra
* Chicago
* Christchurch
* Copenhagen
* Darwin
* Dublin
* Hobart
* Manila
* Melbourne
* Montreal
* Odense
* Ottawa
* Perth
* Phoenix
* San Francisco
* Santa Cruz
* Suva and Lautoka
* Sydney
* Tel Aviv
* Toronto
* Vancouver
I’m surprised people are not concerned of Global warming, but we feel it alot in Jordan. We had poor rainfall the past 10 years. There was no spring this year as summer came in March! And last year, summer arrived in latre June. We all need to be reponsible, how about we have a 1 day smoke free in Jordan, I believe that will be impossible.
أناقول بكÙÙŠ خزعبلات ومهاتارات علي الشعب المسكين،يعني أقل شئ هذه الØكومه كان يجب Ù† تتبعوه لتخÙي٠نسبه ثاني الكربون ،هوا أجبار شركات السيارات بوضع نضام السيطره علي أنبعاث ثاني أكسيد الكربون من المركبات والشاØنات
For this occasion I decided to turn on my lights on the patio that I usually keep off.
Global warming indeed is a threat but I’m not sure anything will help prevent it.
supposedly Dubai joined in, Im not sure if SZR was affected… flying in, i was blinded with all the neons and billboards selling americana and europa.
Maybe Jordanians should embrace all sorts of resource conservation, and grow this to become part of our lifestyle.
If we had our attitude together, we’d have a monthly Water Day, Power Hour, No Waste Day, and maybe even a Common Sense Day, Honesty Day, Mentor a Kid Day, Read a Story to Elders Day, No Honking Day, No Smoking Day, Pick Up Trash Day, No Hosing Cars/Sidewalks Day, Ride a Cab Day, Walk to Work Day, Plant Day, and so many more….
Imagine if we celebrated days like this, monthly. Eventually this would become a way of life, and not just a ‘special date’. The good stuff moves from the margins and becomes mainstream. And oh what a wonderful world it would be! 😉
Friends here (in Canada) have been asking me: so are they celebrating earth hour in Jordan. When I asked family and friends in Amman, my mother jokingly said “we’re retarded… earth hour? we only hear about it in the news… no one observed anything!” I was simply baffled that the Ministry of Environment didn’t planned to do a simple a thing as encourage people to turn the lights off! Can you imagine the impact of a simple act like this on a child’s awareness of the country’s resources. And yes Nas, I think policy-makers need to become aware that a segment of Jordanians (even if marginal) is interested in taking part in such an event. Jordan always markets itself as a country with poor resources but it doesn’t make sense when a global event like this does not leave its mark on the country. It certainly is strange when Jordanians express awareness of water and fuel shortages and complain (always) about their rising prices, but nobody tries to walk in Jordan! Everybody wants to have their own private car! People “look down” at the users of public transit (buses are all we have), and consider it a “step up” the social ladder when they own a car -and the larger the car the more the ja3sa!
Maybe this is an overly critical perception, or maybe it’s a pessimist view of things, but most probably it is a realistic perspective… There’s a need for awareness if the country wants to manage and even expand given its meager resources. And to those who say the direct impact of such events is marginal: it is the long term impact that matters, the benefit of continuous awareness that leads to continuous reduced use that make the difference.
I’m glad I did my part 🙂
Earth Hour wasn’t only joined at Wild Jordan
it was also at our homes, offices, and etc.
i made a small video on earth hour which can be found here: