What about the other 364 days?

by: Jullianne Mora

"It only takes 60 minutes to do good for our future."

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. made this statement as he invited Filipinos to participate in this year's Earth Hour celebration by turning off non-essential lights, and for over 15 years the world has been participating in this practice but it's more than just about turning your lights off and it's definitely more than 60 minutes to do good for our future.

This one-day event gives people and corporations a convenient excuse to jump on the bandwagon and not make real changes every other day of the year.

On this day posting on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter about the love for Earth and the desire to create change on this day is significant yet their action stops the following day.

The downside of a single day celebration is that it is performative and problematic, especially when the government starts pushing these greenwashing campaigns.

Shouldn’t we ask ourselves, why can we only consider environmental issues for one day a year — or in this case for one hour a year?

Environmental action needs to happen more than one day a year — this is a cause that needs consistent action and work to be done on the other 364 days of the year.

While it is true that it is not a national or federal holiday, Earth Day should be a day of action to change human behavior and create policy change.

The government should focus more on implementing acts that could help the environment consistently, knowing that the Philippines faces major challenges in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 15 or “Life on Land” which strives to guarantee the benefits of land-based ecosystems.

Even the Republic Act No. 11285 or the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, which mandates a practice of energy conservation, took 32 years to be implemented.

Earth Day is a good motivator to keep at it. It is always good to have those reminders and recommit to the environment.

Since 2007, Earth Hour has shown a spotlight on the issues of climate change. It has reached over 190 countries and territories and millions of people around the globe but there are so many opportunities to think about what the planet needs.

According to the Earth Day Network, more than 1 billion people are involved in Earth Day activities every year. Indeed, Earth Day is seen as a major force in shifting attention towards the health of the planet.

Yet, we are still dealing with some huge environmental problems, and lots of things have actually gotten worse since the first Earth Day, like climate change, the use of fossil fuels is on the rise and the planet is heating up. Forests are being cut, animals are going extinct, and plastic pollution is everywhere.

We need a new generation to engage with Earth Day and inject some of the grassroots, revolutionary mentality that was there when it all began.

Earth Day could play a part in sparking the next environmental revolution — the first step is to get people talking. It is a good chance for us to have the conversation at a global level — a conversation that the government should initiate to finally address some of these challenging problems that take more than 60 minutes to make a difference.