COUNCILOR Bernadette Florendo-Roco urged the Sanggunian Panlungsod to pass a resolution last Tuesday, March 25, 2008 declaring the time from 8:00 to 9:00 in the evening on Saturday, March 29, as “Naga City (Bikol) Earth Hour”.

        Roco explained in her privilege speech Tuesday this week that this declaration would enjoin everybody ---- all barangay residents, households, business establishments within Naga City --- to turn off electric lights and non-essential appliances during the designated hour. In this manner, the City of Naga joins the “Earth Hour” in countries around the world in a concerted and communal action to promote electricity conservation and lower carbon emissions.

        Being the chair of the Sanggunian Panlungsod Environment Committee, Roco recounted that the first Earth Hour held in Sydney, Australia, on March 31, 2007, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., was estimated to have cut Sydney’s main electricity consumption by between 2.1% and 10.2% for that hour. Taking part in that gesture were an estimated 65,000 households and 2,000 businesses or close to 2.2 million.

        For that same hour, 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide were not emitted into the atmosphere, the equivalent of almost 48,613 cars off the road.

        For that same hour, more than 20,000 kwh of energy was also saved, which was enough to power 200,000 TVs, 400,000 60-watt light bulbs. At the rate of P9.657 per kwh, which is the Camarines Sur II Electric Cooperative billing rate that includes monstrous and multifarious charges --- from systems loss to metering system charge, from hiring system charges to VAT (RC) and VAT (DR) and dagmang pang iba --- that would roughly amount to P 193,140.00. That amount by any other name is still P193,140.00. And that is a lot of money saved in one hour.

        But more than the savings in energy and in the reduction of energy consumed, the main point of the “Earth Hour” resolution is to engender consciousness and deliberate action among people to cut down greenhouse gas emissions produced by electric power plants that use bunker fuel in electric power plants that supply energy to run gasoline stations, refrigerators, air-conditioning units and other household appliances.

        Anent to it, “Earth Hour” impresses on us that irresponsible management of the environment can truly be counted with graft and corruption and greed as the new and modern sins in the new millennium as recently contended by the Catholic Bishop of Rome.

        Power outage is not new among people in Naga City or even in the region. They are treated to it time and again by the TransCo. Turning off the power supply in households may not harm at all the finances of the TransCo or of the electric cooperatives since electric cooperatives and consequently the consumers are made to pay higher power rates for power consumption below their designated quota than when they are able to meet their quota.

        Be that as it may, the deliberate switching off of power supply in one’s home for one hour on March 29 is something different. It is a bold statement that the household is sharing in the care of the environment. It is a deliberate communal action that asserts the choice to go against an outrageous system. It is a coming together of people who want to make a difference in their life and in their society for their children.

        What remains to be seen is the number of houses in Naga City that will be well-lighted on March 29 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Let us not cross our fingers, but spread them, and with them count the well-lighted houses, for one, along the Avenue that never sleeps ----the Magsaysay Avenue.