Switch everything off this Thursday (1st of February) between 19:55 and 20:00. This Thursday, on the 1st of February 2007, why not participate in a large pan-european grassroots movement addressing climate change.

From France, “L’ Alliance pour la Planete” (“Alliance for the Earth”), an association of environmental and social justice groups has a simple message for everyone; sacrifice 5 minutes for the planet. You’re asked to join others switch off all electrical appliances between 19:55 and 20:00 CET on Thursday the 1st of February. It’s not just about saving 5 minutes’ worth of electricity, but a symbolic gesture to draw attention to our vast consumption of energy and the urgent need to reduce, reuse and recycle.

You can sacrifice 5 minutes for the benefit of the planet, right? It won’t cost you anything.

Why the 1st of February you ask? Well, the following day, on Friday the 2nd, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is due to release what is expected will be the strongest and most grave assessment to date of global warming by the world’s experts. It is only Part 1 of a three-part series of reports that the panel is compiling, with Part 1 describing “The Physical Science Basis” of global warming.

This proposed “lights off” action is an opportunity for you to say “I care”. If we all take part, we will put a clear message out to the media and send another stern message to politicians.

The Environmental Safety Group is supporting this action and asks that you do too by forwarding this message on to as many of your contacts as possible… oh, and by switching off on Thursday at 19:55 !

When you switch back on at 20:00, why not tune in to GBC tv for a Viewpoint discussion of Climate Change and the Environment, in which ESG’s Janet Howitt will be participating.

If you need convincing of the urgency of the climate change situation, then read on for some of the fire-and-brimstone facts from Part 2 of the IPCC’s reports “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, leaked to Reuters:

· Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States. …

· By the end of the century, climate change will bring water scarcity to between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people as temperatures rise by 2 to 3 Celsius (3..6 to 4.8 Fahrenheit), a leaked draft of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report said.

· The report, due for release in April … said an additional 200 million to 600 million people across the world would face food shortages in another 70 years, while coastal flooding would hit another 7 million homes.