[Anglican Communion News Service] Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has urged Anglicans in Africa and around the world to support Earth Hour by “switching off your lights” and “switching on to saving the world.”

Earth Hour, observed this year on March 23, is an annual worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It encourages households and businesses to turn off non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness of the need for action on climate change.

“In one hour you can change the world,” said Makgoba, who also chairs the Anglican Communion Environmental Network. “Let this be the first hour of a new life of energy saving, and living lightly.”

The archbishop acknowledged the importance of preserving the world for posterity. “We have no other option to preserving our world for future generations,” he said. “There is no planet B [and] we have no alternative!”

The event first took place in 2007 when 2.2 million residents of Sydney, Australia, turned off their non-essential lights, and in 2008 many other cities round the world did the same.

This Saturday (March 23), everyone on the planet is urged to switch off their lights from 8:30 – 9:30 p.m. to show their commitment to a sustainable future. They are then to make that commitment tangible in long-term choices for more environmentally friendly living.