In Romblon, it’s lights on

It was the other way around on Sibuyan Island in Romblon province.

Led by an environmental group called Bayay Sibuyanon, residents in Sibuyan kept their lights on during Earth Hour (from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.) on March 28.

Their action was in contrast to the global lights-off event that World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) started in Australia in 2007. For one hour in a year, people worldwide are encouraged to switch off their lights and electric appliances in a campaign to reduce carbon emissions.

“We did the opposite,” Bayay Sibuyanon executive director Rodne Galicha said in a phone interview on Sunday. Galicha is also the Philippine manager of The Climate Reality Project, a global movement founded by Nobel laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore in 2006.

Asked why the group took the opposite tack, Galicha said it was an “attempt to do things differently as what we do for the environment.”