Earth Hour is a global movement showing that small actions make a big difference.
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For 19 years, one hour in March has quietly reminded the world that small actions matter.
What started in 2007 as a simple lights-out event in Sydney, Australia, has become the largest grassroots environmental movement on the planet.
In 2025, participants across 118 countries dedicated more than three million hours to the Earth.
That’s three million hours spent staring at darkness, thinking about why we left the lights on in the first place.
This year, on Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 pm, South Africans are invited to join the global blackout for "The Biggest Hour for Earth".
"Show up, spend an hour and be part of something bigger than yourself," urges Pedzi Gozo, head of strategic communications at World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa.
Spending time outdoors is one of the simplest ways to boost both your physical and mental well-being.
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Here’s how to make your one hour genuinely count:
Your phone won’t die if you leave it inside for 60 minutes. Step outside and actually see the world beyond your walls.
Take a sunset stroll, wander through a nearby park, or sit quietly in your garden. If you’re feeling ambitious, organise a starlit walk with friends.
Research shows that even 20 minutes in nature lowers stress and improves your mood, so technically, Earth Hour is self-care disguised as activism.
Choosing legumes, grains and seasonal vegetables over meat-heavy dishes can significantly reduce your carbon footprint.
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You can switch off your lights all you want, but if your dinner is a meat-heavy feast shipped from the other side of the globe, Mother Nature might side-eye you.
Try a plant-based or low-impact meal. Legumes, grains, and seasonal vegetables produce far less carbon than meat-heavy dishes.
Even a simple chickpea curry or roasted vegetable stir-fry makes a difference. Supporting local sustainable restaurants also keeps food miles low and your conscience clean.
Organising a mini cleanup at your street, local park or nearby river is a simple but powerful way to make a visible difference in your community.
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Grab gloves, a bag and make your neighbourhood or your nearest park, beach or river look less like a trash heap.
Litter isn’t just ugly but it also kills wildlife and pollutes water. Even small community clean-ups have a measurable impact: WWF research shows that removing everyday litter from rivers and streets prevents toxins from entering ecosystems.
Plus, it doubles as a mini workout, so you can call it multitasking.
Assessing your daily habits is a key step toward living a more mindful and sustainable life.
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Take the hour to rethink daily habits. Switch off unused electronics, reuse containers, ditch single-use plastics and finally tackle that pile of old receipts, coffee cups, and paper towels.
Small changes, like using cloth bags, keeping a compost bin or cutting down on packaging, add up over time.
Your home will look tidier, your bills might drop, and you’ll feel like you’re actually doing something meaningful while binge-watching nature documentaries.
Don’t just sit in the dark staring at your walls. Watch "Our Planet", "Blue Planet II" or "Life in Colour" and see why you should care about every leaf, coral and penguin.
Prefer reading? Try "The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells, "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer or "No Shortcuts to the Top" by conservationist Chris Eckert.
Earth Hour proves that even a flick of a switch can spark change.
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