Yesterday, the planet celebrated Earth Hour. And really thats what it was. A celebration. A celebration of our commitment to Mother Earth. An ongoing partnership with Mother Earth. More and more people becoming aware that we hold our planet in trust for our children.

In this time of natural disasters, more and more we are seeing the results of our thoughtless actions on our beloved planet. We are starting to see the consequences of the actions that we have been taking for many many years. And what we are looking at is not very pleasant. Ánd if we dont start making better choices, what we face ahead is much worse. Be it from deforestation, to filling the waters of our world with chemicals and effluents, to dumping waste in landfills, to plastic, to the latest the nuclear radiation.

We are truly seeing the consequences of the actions that we have taken. So if we want to see different consequences, we have to do something different. We have to look at ourselves as an extension of Mother Earth. So just like we dont dump chemicals on ourselves, we have to stop doing it to her.

The Earth Hour is a very small initiative that each of us can take to make this world a better place. In hindsight, I see that I should have written this post BEFORE the Earth Hour. But I say better late than never. Why should Earth Hour take place only once a year. Why can’t I be a part of earth Hour every day? In fact why not every moment of the day?

If we only look at the resources that we are wasting, we would go a long way. I come from India where traditionally we grow up respecting the resources. Where the local recycling guy comes door to door to buy old newspapers, glass bottles, plastic bottles, metal cans etc. Water is in scarcity and so we bathe using a bucket and a mug and not showers. Where power is not in plenty and so we face power cuts, upto a few hours in a day. And so when I look at how I have grown up I can see that we have been pretty eco friendly and green.

It is only after I moved to the Middle East about 13 years back that I started to take all these resources for granted and I am ashamed to say that I have even misused them. From throwing away leftover food, to old newspapers, to bottles, to wastage of electricity, to water etc.

Well I am in contemplation of what I can do to go green. So that when the Earth Hour comes next year, it will truly be a celebration of my having contributed to the cause. The two biggest areas I can see right now is conserving electricity and water. and of course the many other small steps that I can take.

I would love to hear what you have to say about contributing to our planet.

About the celebration yesterday, a Community Drum Circle by Dubai Drums and a fantastic performance by them which followed.

On another note Kudos to this family in Abu Dhabi

Mohamed Al Sayad Ali Al Nowais, from Abu Dhabi, along with his wife, Budoor, and their three young children, six-year-old Ali, four-year-old Hasan, and Fatima, aged two, agreed to participate in the National Geographic Al Aribiya magazine’s worldwide 360° Energy Diet Challenge, where they aim to drastically reduce their carbon footprint over a four-month period. They’re up against other families from Canada, Slovenia, Mexico, Egypt, Japan, Sweden, India and the USA.