This Saturday, governments, and companies on all six islands of the Dutch Kingdom will join forces for nature during WWF-Earth Hour. The lighting of bridges, buildings and streetlights at various locations will be switched off for one hour as a signal for the vulnerable nature that is threatened by climate change, among other things.
The World Wide Fund for Nature – Netherlands (WWF-NL) is the driving force behind Earth Hour in the Netherlands, but events are now being organized spontaneously throughout the country. WWF-NL approached governments and companies in the Dutch Caribbean to participate in Earth Hour, which will take place worldwide on March 23 from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM local time. This call received massive support.
With the cooperation of Curaçao Ports Authority and Aqualectra, the area around Brionplein, the Queen Emma bridge, the Handelskade and the Governor’s Palace will be dark. Government organizations on Aruba, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, energy company STUCO N.V. and telecommunications company Eutel N.V. will turn off the lights in their buildings. Port St. Maarten will disconnect the non-essential lights of the Causeway Bridge and Saba Electric Company is going to power down the streetlights in 3 parts of the island (Hell’s Gate Guts, Well’s Bay Road, and Fort Bay Road). WWF-NL also encourages the local community to join Earth Hour.
Earth Hour is an annual initiative of the international WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). The initiative started in Sydney in 2007 as a small-scale action to draw attention to climate change. In the years since, it has grown into the world’s largest movement for the protection of nature. In addition to shutting down the lights, the nature organization encourages everyone to do something positive for nature for more than 60 minutes (hence the 60+ logo): for example, eat plant-based more often, recycle more, plant a tree, etc.
