Do it for our kids

PLEA: Miliband

By Ed Miliband, Energy and climate change secretary, 22/03/2009

EARTH Hour is shaping up to be an impressive symbolic response to our planet in peril.

Popular pressure like this will leave little doubt at the negotiating table in Copenhagen this December that a meaningful global carbon deal must be delivered.

Pressure is also coming from the science itself which shows the urgency of the need for action.

If we fail to act, our ice sheets will melt quicker, sea levels will rise faster, and our oceans will acidify to a much greater level - all with devastating impacts on the people and environment of our planet.

I am optimistic that Earth Hour is pushing against an open door. But Earth Hour does something else too.

It forces us to all to consider the energy we use, and it shows us how easy it is to do our bit.

Switching off unnecessary lights should be second nature to us all. It saves energy, it saves money and it saves carbon.

Earth Hour's a good start. Let's make this Earth YEAR. Let's make our children and their children proud that this was the year we stood up and were counted on climate change.

Your comments

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Politician's wages should be inversely proportional to the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is the only way to get them to adopt a near-zero CO2 plan. Once this is done we can take the CO2 produced by man out of the atmosphere by producing as much biochar as possible as fast as possible.

By Andy Kadir-Buxton. Posted April 17 2009 at 7:09 PM.

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