Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 19
Global warming and climate change have emerged as burning issues pitting environmentalists against policy makers. The apprehension of a deteriorating environment has challenged scientists to reduce carbon emission while forcing governments to rethink on industrial policy.
While policy makers and scientists do their part, lay people can also contribute towards improving the planet’s health. Earth Hour gives an opportunity to citizens to play a part in tackling climate change.
The Earth Hour movement seeks to engage people at the grassroots to fight climate change. All a person has to do is switch off electricity for 60 minutes at an appointed hour, which falls on March 19. The effort allows the individual to directly involve in reducing energy consumption.
Nagaland too has been part of this global grassroots effort for the past 4-5 years. Every year, on March 19, the power department shuts down the supply even as citizens look away. The people’s contention, “We get our own share of ‘Earth Hours’ everyday in the form of ‘load shedding.”
This year, too, the department shut down power supply.
The ‘switch off’ was affected at around 8:50 pm. One department official commented that the observance has become more of enforcement than voluntary, diluting the essence of the movement.
However, Nagaland happened to be the only state in the north-east to be observing the Earth Hour. As per the power allocation (real time) data uploaded by the North Eastern Load Despatch Centre, Shillong, at 9:00 pm, March 19, Nagaland was drawing only 9.9MW of the allocated 52MW. The rest of the states, except Manipur, were drawing beyond the allocated quantum.
