8:30pm this evening, wherever you are in the world, will be #EarthHour – a movement which sees millions of people across the globe uniting symbolically to protect our planet.

This year’s Earth Hour theme is Connect2Earth, and focuses on our inseparable relationship with our planet. Biodiversity loss continues year on year, and working in conservation we see the efforts our peers (including and ourselves) are making to shift perceptions and influence behaviours across sectors. But do we, as conservationists and scientists, take time to also reflect
on ourselves and the root causes for biodiversity loss?

This year, DiversEarth Director Liza Zogib shares her meditative reflection:

“Sometimes being in the conservation world is frustrating! And many times I think we simply get it wrong because we never get to the real root causes of biodiversity loss, of climate change, indeed of all that is unfair and ugly in this world. To put it in conservation speak, we don’t go far enough back in the ‘results chain’ to get to our own individual greed, ignorance, desires… We assume that polishing the structure (changing policies, putting up barriers, guarding places with guns) will do the trick. It will not. That is why millions of conservation dollars are spent and all the while species are still disappearing, places are still being wrecked in the name of development, the world’s ‘resources’ still being wasted, peoples of minority culture still being marginalised.

It is we humans who have made this mess in the world and we must all take that responsibility. But responsibility is a big word, and no one likes it. We are all too immersed in our own petty problems. It doesn’t take intellectual understanding, but a deep sentiment from the whole being to understand that we are the world, and the world is us (to quote one of the most inspiring teachers of our time, J Krishnamurti). Only when we fully realise and attend to this connection, which has been eroded in all but a few cultures, will a real and lasting difference to our planet be made.”

Do you agree? We’d love to know you’re thoughts – connect with us and let’s start reflecting together on how we can improve our relationship with our only home. #StartsAtHome