UCSI University today commemorated Earth Hour in a big way for the second year running, in its efforts to educate and raise public awareness about environmental conservation. The event featured hot-air balloon rides for the public, and an open-air concert featuring popular bands such as Disagree, An Honest Mistake, Eve and Halfway Kings. More than 700 members of the public came to the event to show their support for Earth Hour.

At 8.30pm, UCSI University shut down its lights in synchrony with many other cities around the world, in a symbolic universal gesture to commemorate Earth Hour and in a unified effort to promote environmental conservation, mitigate global warming and the degradation of Mother Earth. A global event, Earth Hour is observed by billions of people every year on the last weekend of March. To emphasize this, as a show of solidarity, concert-goers at UCSI University’s Earth Hour concert released balloons into the sky at count-down at 8.30pm, with a personal pledge tied to each balloon to commit to an action that will reduce global warming on an everyday basis. Dubbed as “The Pledge for Mother Earth”, the event took place right before the lights were switched off, and joined by hundreds of people from all walks of life.

Prior to the event, the University also promoted the Earth Hour cause to secondary school students around the Klang Valley, and gave away goodies, courtesy of MYC! Magazine, and GTi. The team, called EduXplorer, is made up of UCSI University students who are equally passionate about the cause, and want to spread the message.

This is the second time the University’s Corporate Affairs Department organised the Earth Hour on campus, and the department plans to make it an annual agenda. According to Prof. Dr. Norfadzillah Bt. Hitam, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, this event is important to educate youths about the effects of global warming. “Planet Earth is our life source, and it is our responsibility to protect the Earth, and conserve the environment for the sustenance of future generations.”