In front of you we have formed with candles the symbol 60+ which symbolizes Earth Hour because today we are turning off the lights for one hour. Earth Hour, however, is not those 60 minutes. Earth Hour is 24 hours. Earth Hour is 365 days a year. There is no Earth Hour. There is no clock for the Earth. The clock serves us. To remind us that the Earth will continue to exist with or without us. The Hour of the Earth, if translated correctly, means "the hour of man", since our quality of life and our health will depend on the way we walk and behave on this earth.
When the historian Dimitrios Kaburoglou wrote this saying in the early 1900s, he certainly meant many things, except of course the environment.
When the historian Dimitrios Kaburoglou wrote this saying in the early 1900s, he certainly meant many things, except of course the environment. At that time they had not yet realized the direct relationship between man and his environment. But more than 100 years later and his writings encapsulate for me the whole meaning of environmental protection. What does this mean? That a clean sea is not the sea that 2 hours earlier volunteers were picking up butts and plastic bottles. Clean land is not the land that was cleared last week of litter and tons of rubble. A clean ocean is not one that was cleaned up after an oil spill. Clean air is not one that needed a machine to clean it up, nor is a clean river one that was cleaned up from waste. Clean land, air, water is not what has had to be cleaned, but what has never been polluted.
And that is the goal. No more plastic touching the coasts. To never again spill a single chemical into rivers and seas. Never again to see debris dumped on the earth. This is our vision, not clean-up campaigns. We want reuse and recycling of materials. Not recycling clean-up campaigns. Yes. First we will clean up and reverse all that we have caused. We will change habits and mindsets. And then, we won't pollute again. We must not pollute again."
The key to achieving this is what we ourselves have created in nature which makes sure to remind us every day, with warming temperatures, with toxic pollutants, with destructive effects on our health and with this grey that increasingly dominates the atmosphere.
The novelty of this year's Earth Hour for Cyprus lies in the fact that we are not only joining our voices with millions of citizens who will soon turn off the lights. We joined forces of various institutions and departments and decided that in order to change habits, we need to enlighten citizens and at the same time encourage them to change their routine, even if only for a while, in the hope that this time the temporary will be replaced by the permanent.
So together with the Ministry of Transport and the Public Transport companies, we managed to make the use of urban and intercity buses free of charge for a whole 24 hours. Together with the Press and Information Office, we launched on Thursday a campaign to inform the public about Earth Hour and the actions of today. Together with the municipalities of Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paralimni and Paphos we kept the cities' Green Spots open for today, which is a public holiday. Together with the municipalities I just mentioned and the Ministry of Interior we are turning off the lights of the municipal mega lights and the buildings of the Ministry of Interior, as well as the Presidential Palace, during the 60 minutes of land. With the Nicosia Music School we are doing tonight's modest event. I must publicly thank the Ministers of Transport and Interior, the Press and Information Office, the aforementioned Mayors and the Music Schools for this synergy.
I must explain that the move by the Public Transport companies to offer free urban and intercity transport for a whole 24 hours is particularly significant. This is because 49% of the pollutants emitted by our country come from transport. If we change our habits, if each one of us leaves the car even for a while and takes the bus, if we integrate sustainable mobility in our routine, it will literally give breath to the whole island, to all of us who have the right to breathe clean air. In other words, hard work and synergies that will lead to an improvement in the quality of life of citizens in terms of sustainability is our priority and our benchmark.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are among 80 children, 13 to 18 years old. We want each of them to be able to open a window and breathe fresh air, to be able to play in nature, to be able to swim in a plastic-free sea, to see green and not grey. That's what I want for my son and for your children. But more than that, we want to leave these children a healthy, better future on this Earth. That is our purpose. It's not about politics. It's not a matter of position. It is a matter of healthy living for our children.
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Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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