Hundreds of millions of people in thousands of cities around the world participate in Earth Hour. Earth Hour as the name suggests lasts for exactly one hour from 8:30pm to 9:30pm local time.

It is a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund of Nature and is observed every year in the month of March. Earth Hour encourages households and businesses to turn off their lights for 1 hour in an effort to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change, conservation and on improving our environment.

The severe weather patterns seen in recent years are being  attributed to climate change. Something needs to be done to slow down climate change. This is necessary earth to be inhabitable by future generations. The WWF (The World Wide Fund of Nature) helps  run projects to raise awareness about conservation, the environment and climate change so that we all can make a difference.  Earth hour is a worldwide effort to bring focus to these issues.

Earth Hour first took place in 2007, in Sydney, Australia and had over 2.2 million people participate in it, by turning off their lights.

Following Sydney's lead,  many other cities around the world adopted Earth Hour. Today, more than 150 countries across the world participate.

Thanks to  efforts like these, there is growing awareness to conserve and protect our environment.
People can participate in Earth Hour and other efforts beyond that to save the planet. They can collaborate on projects with the WWF or Earth Hour in addition to making lifestyle changes to conserve and save the environment.

Gem words:
collaborate - work jointly on activity or project
conservation -  to protect animals, fungi, plants and their habitats
habitat - natural home
inhabitable - suitable to live in

Earth day is observed each year on April 22nd. This is a day dedicated for all of us to think about our planet Earth.  And, to figure out ways to make it last for us forever.

As technology has advanced in previous decades, there has been more and more pollution that have contaminated our Earth, making it dirty and difficult to live in.  The environment has seen continuous deterioration. It is believed that the damage to the environment is also causing climate change, that will effect all of us.

A US senator, Gary Nelson saw these problems and formed Earth day in 1970 to raise awareness. Many leaders also recognized this and The US Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970. The EPA creates and enforces regulations to help us keep our air, land and water clean.

But creating an agency that mandates laws is not enough. To have a positive impact everyone needs to do his or her bit.

A few simple things that we can all do:

• Don’t waste paper. Use both sides of paper and then remember to recycle it.
  
• Take shorter showers and save water.
  
• Remember to not leave the water running when you brush your teeth.
  
• Use a reusable cup instead of a juice box.
  
• Remember to turn off lights and TV when you are not in the room
  
• And, if possible lets all plant one tree each. When the trees grow big they produce oxygen - we need that to breathe!

In addition to the efforts led by the EPA, several corporations, organizations and schools conduct Earth Day activities to educate people.
 
The Earth is the only planet we can live on. Lets take good care of it by keeping it clean and healthy.

Gem words:climate change: the change in global climate patterns that have been observed from the mid to late 20th century onwards that are believed to be the result of increased pollutants and carbon dioxide.
contaminate: make something impure by adding a harmful or poisonous substance.
deteriorate:become progressively worse
regulation: rules or directives made and maintained by an authority