BAPS Swaminarayan mandirs across the UK joined iconic landmarks as well as communities and organisations in 188 countries and territories by switching off its non-essential lights to observe Earth Hour at 8.30pm on Saturday 30 March 2019.
Earth Hour – the world’s largest environmental event – is a global movement uniting millions of people “to build mass awareness on why nature is important, and create an unstoppable movement for nature.”
More than 3,100 landmarks and monuments participated around the world, including the Sydney Opera House, Egypt’s Great Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer monument and the Empire State Building in New York, as well as notable buildings in London, such as the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and St Paul’s Cathedral.
Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. It is coordinated by the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations.
Sudhanshu Sarronwala, Executive Director of Marketing & Communications at WWF International said, “Earth Hour is about the collective power of individuals participating in a global conversation and pressing for action.”
WWF’s Director General Marco Lambertini added, “We are pushing the planet to the limit and nature is severely under threat. Earth Hour 2019 is a powerful opportunity to start an unstoppable movement for nature, to help secure an international commitment to stop and reverse the loss of nature.”
BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha is committed to taking action ‘beyond the hour’ as part of a wider initiative to support safer environmental practices. Yogen Shah, a volunteer at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London, shared, “Our spiritual leader, Mahant Swami Maharaj, inspires us to take personal care of the environment. Nature underpins all of our lives and we are grateful for its bounty. Switching off lights is not merely a gesture, but is part of a principle embedded in the Hindu ethos and one that is at the heart of our thoughts and actions.”
Earth Hour is also observed by BAPS mandirs in North America and by Swaminarayan Akshardham, New Delhi.
To learn more about Earth Hour and the WWF, please follow the respective links.
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