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Last Saturday , the nation took part in a global campaign to arrest global warming and to promote awareness of the threat of climate change. Earth Hour, an environmental campaign by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), was successfully launched in Australia in March 2007 with around two million people and 2100 establishments joining the said campaign.

This year the campaign’s effort to have people switch off their lights for an hour has spread among 83 countries given the simplicity and effectiveness of what is asked of those willing to participate in the campaign. According to WWFPhilippines, the country had the most number of cities and towns with 647, which pledged to participate in the campaign.

In Naga City, huge sections of the city have joined Earth Hour 2009 in saving and celebrating the effort to thwart climate change. Most business establishments along Magsaysay Ave. have turned off their lights and electrical equipment from 8:30 PM until 9:30 PM, the one-hour period of the global campaign. Similarly, darkness enveloped numerous homes as residents participated in Earth Hour 2009. Like what its slogan asked, many did vote for the Earth.

Earth Hour’s success in advocating awareness and involvement against climate change is in many ways a beacon of hope. The United Nations’ report on the climate states that “rich nations will have to cut their emissions to a level between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst effects of warming.” Moreover, “developing nations will also have to slow the rise of their emissions by 2020,” it says. Such tasks or targets can appear daunting and overwhelming for governments; more so, for “regular people” who see themselves helpless to address the issue. With Earth Hour, however, the simple flick of a switch by anyone can contribute to reducing power consumption and thus aid in bringing down the level of greenhouse gas emissions.

This year’s Earth Hour had targeted one billion people to switch off their lights and be in the dark for 60 minutes. By so doing, it lit within those one billion people the hope that they can change the world for the better.

She used to be a warrior against CO2-killers, a queen of world climate, a chancellor with a mission. It was not long ago that Angela Merkel seemed to have no other more important topic than climate. But today we are suffering from the severest financial crisis in 80 years and it obviously puts things, even the world climate, into perspective. Lars Seefeldt, reporter for ZDF, a German TV program under public law, recently hunted down the issue, and it is his interviews I am here referring to.

It was only last week, that the European Spring Summit Conference of Heads of States and Governments took place in Brussels. Most important topic was the financial crisis. All newspapers, TV, and other media were filled with interviews, statements, facts and figures brought up in that conference. All focusing on how Europe now decides to deal with the problem. But what happened to topic climate? What happened to the approved financial support for environmental protection in China and India? The German Chancellor: “It is important that we establish a tactically reasonable bargaining position.

IT'S GRADUATION WEEK FOR MANY schools. I have the joy of graduating again on Saturday under the MBA program for priests at the Ateneo de Naga University. Doña Chito Madrigal of happy memory offered a scholarship for priests of Bikol through the Madrigal Foundation, to take up an MBA program on Socio-Pastoral Entrepreneurship in order to equip priests with necessary know-how for revitalizing the evangelization programs of parishes through an integral development plan. Seventeen priests from Bikol (2 from Virac, 1 from Masbate and 11 from Caceres-Naga) have finished the graduate program. Thank you Doña Chito. Congratulations Fathers!