LAHORE, March 18: Hundreds of students joined pop singer Faakhir Mehmood at a school on Monday to launch Lahore’s official Earth Hour 2013 campaign with the World Wide Fund for Nature – Pakistan (WWF–Pakistan).
Members of civil society, environmentalists, teachers and parents were also present.
Faakhir was invited to become WWF’s Earth Hour ambassador based on his commitment to sustainability and conservation of natural resources.
Speaking to students of the City School, Shalimar Campus, Faakhir said he never used plastic bags and that none of them should use them either.
“It is individual acts of conservation that will save our earth,” he added. He also performed a few of his most popular songs such as ‘Jiya Na Jaye’, ‘Aey Jawan’, ‘Teray Bina Dil Na Lagey’ and ‘Jadu Ka Charagh’.
WWF–Pakistan Senior Director Anwar Nasim said: “Earth Hour is more than just about switching off extra lights.”
“It’s about voluntary actions in every day life that supports conservation and environmental sustainability,” he said.
He said environmental conservation should be taught at schools as a separate subject and a spirit of voluntary action should be inculcated in the younger generation as they will inherit the planet.
The Shalimar Campus and Gulberg Campus of the school announced that they had also joined WWF–Pakistan’s Green School Programme.
“We have welcomed students from different schools across Lahore to take part in this event,” school principal Sajid Hasnain said.
“Earth Hour is a great movement to raise environmental awareness and conservation, and to involve students in a meaningful global activity. The educators’ community fully supports it,” she said.
Earth Hour is a global symbolic movement to raise awareness about the earth’s troubling environmental issues, chief of which are natural resource conservation and the energy crisis.
Started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, Earth Hour is now celebrated in more than 170 cities across the planet. Each participating country adapts the theme according to local environmental issues.
In an energy starved country like Pakistan where power cuts are a part of life, WWF–Pakistan promotes taking small steps towards a greener Pakistan, such as volunteering to plant trees, conserving green spaces in cities, domestic water conservation, sustainable consumption patterns and more.