West Orange Holds Its 11th Earth Hour Conference

By Isabelle Zellan ‘23 and Daniel Shapiro ‘23

    On March 25, the City of West Orange held its 11th conference for the Earth Hour event. The event itself, held on March 27, consisted of citizens and towns shutting off non-essential lights in a symbolic gesture to help raise awareness about the threat our global climate is facing.
    Started by the World Wildlife Fund and partners in 2007, the Earth Hour event started off as a symbolic lights-out event held in Sydney, Australia. From there it grew into a large grassroots movement that encompasses cities and towns across the globe. 

In this age of growing environmental instability, these grassroots movements have been incredibly influential in gathering support for environmental protection. Their continued growth is vital to the long-term stability of the planet.
    This year’s Earth Hour event was opened by Mike Brick, chairman of the West Orange environmental commission.
“Earth hour aims to increase awareness and spark global conversations on protecting nature not only to combat the climate crisis but to ensure our own health, happiness and prosperity and even survival,” Brick stated in his opening.
“Earth Hour is a great idea and I encourage other towns to do this,” eighth-grader Shayne Cytrynbaum said.
Other notable attendees to the event included West Orange’s mayor Robert Parisi. In his speech, Mayor Parisi stressed that “in the 11 years of my administration, this township has never supported or developed any undeveloped land…we have worked hard to preserve land whenever possible.”
    Sophomore Sophie Fischer said, “I’m really happy that our mayor wants to protect our land and [that he] believes that is an aspect of his job that is important.”
“There’s a natural environment that’s out of the control of all of us, and we know that the way that we fouled our nest is such that we have to turn it around and we have to make a difference,” State Assemblyman John McKeon said.
    One of the last of the speakers was a group of students from West Orange High School. They reflected on how Gen Z will both find the solutions and bear the consequences for the actions of today.
“We’re really active and passionate about climate change and want to make a change.”  Riya Goel, senior at West Orange High School and co-President of the Fight for Green Club, said. “Gen Z is going to be at the forefront of climate change because we care.”
This year’s Earth Hour was a pleasant reminder that the fight for our planet’s health is far from over. This was a symbolic action, but it may signify a turn towards a greener, more sustainable future.
“I think we have a lot more ways to help spread the word, like [through] social media, so we’re doing a better job of it than past generations. We are going to live to see more of the major effects so we care about it more,” sophomore Gabrielle Zellan said.