On Saturday, March 28, 2009, people all around the world were encouraged to join in on Earth Hour. During this period, which took place between 8:30 and 9:30pm in each participant's respective location, individuals were to "switch off their lights" for one hour. The 2009 event was the first world-wide attempt at an organized Earth Hour and was sponsored by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).
Social Media
After reading about the one billion participant goal on the Earth Hour website, I naturally became curious as to how a phenomena such as this one could even be tracked. To a large extent, it is far too pervasive and voluntary to tally accurate numbers. However, I was intrigued by the site's encouragement of social media use. The homepage suggested that participants to take photos (for the official Flickr group), record video (for the official YouTube group), blog (with specified tags), and Twitter (using hashtags). All of these methods will not only capture a diverse perspective of the people and places involved in Earth Hour, but also provide a tangible archive of interest and action. According to the official site, the purpose behind the event is to gain leverage at the 2009 Global Climate Change Conference, presumably by presenting Earth Hour numbers as evidence that citizens of the world at large are concerned with global warming. Social media, from photos to "tweets" to this blog post, will play a large role in proving that people are taking active roles in the climate change debate. I believe that the ease with which individuals can voice their opinions is a great affordance offered by social media that can be capitalized on by valuable causes.
MSU Participation
I spent most of my Earth Hour roaming around Michigan State University's campus to see if I could gauge how many students were getting involved. But to begin, I was interested to see if any local businesses would participate. So, I started on the main commercial strip at the north side of campus. Unfortunately, I found that essentially no lights were turned off beyond those of shops that just happened to be closed by 8:30pm. Next, I moved on to check out a few dormitories. Some halls were clearly participating, as only a handful of rooms in the entire building had visible lights on, whereas others did not appear to be as active. Below, I have posted some of the photos that I took. Since I was without a tripod and could not take clear, long exposure shots, I tried to create more of a graphical effect using zoom and pan techniques. When interpreting the images, very bright colors represent street, neon sign, and automobile lights. Faint colors represent light coming out of rooms and windows. And darkness, of course, represents an absence of light.
Businesses were not too keen on Earth Hour
Decent participation from this dorm
Likewise
The ghost of electricity presented itself to me
Pretty good participation from this dorm
Hardly any of these students had their lights on
A 360 view of my living room when I returned home
Lights On
Now that Earth Hour has ended, there will be much for the WWF to review in terms of digital information. The power and ease with which target audiences can be engaged through social media intrigues me. Furthermore, these avenues are excellent ways to spread the word about causes, not only to capture results. Awareness often being the most critical factor in getting people interested in non-profit work, I expect to see more and more social capitalization as time goes by. Participating in Earth Hour, an event that could potentially impact the future of global policy, could not have been any easier than it was tonight - thanks to social media.
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