China's Earth Hour focuses on plastic, pollution and primates

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In a move away from symbolism, this year’s Earth Hour, an event founded by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), is shifting its focus to the tangible initiatives of reducing plastic use, pollution and saving primates from extinction.

In China, the WWF will launch a "My 60+ life" campaign on Saturday, which includes a larger than life size installation of a newly-discovered primate species, Skywalker, poised high above a building in a busy shopping of Beijing. The brainchild of Melbourne artist, Lisa Roet, the installation hopes to bring attention to the responsibility we all share to the protection of animals.

The rare Skywalker primate was first discovered in Yunnan Province by a team of Chinese scientists. Lisa Roet, busy putting the final touches to the Skywalker primate art installation at Village Cafe in Sanlitun, told CGTN that primates are facing the worst consequences of environmental degradation.

“Primates are distant cousins of humans. Large-scale habitat loss due to deforestation has moved them to the brink of extinction,” said Roet.

During Earth Hour, people will manually pedal Mobike cycles to generate power to inflate the 20m wide and 10m high installation of the Skywalker, creating a dramatic King Kong like effect atop the hotel.

Skywalker is a sequel to Roet’s famous Golden Monkey primate project presented at The Opposite House in 2016. Her passion for primates takes her to wherever the primates are – whether that’s China, Indonesia or Southeast Asia.

For Roet, the situation is serious, and the call is for people everywhere to pay attention. “Primates are facing global extinction. Indonesia and Malaysia mindless farming of palm oil have decimated the Orangutans population.”

Beyond attention, Lu Sijun, chief representation of WWF’s Beijing office maintained, that their hope is to guide the public beyond the symbolic guest of just “60 minutes” to ensure actions that transform the health of the earth's ecological environment into a daily lifestyle.

The WWF focus is on the long-term reduction of plastic use, increasing green consumption, promoting green travel and reducing single-use items that are tough to recycle on the 10th anniversary of the event.

Every year, millions of households and iconic building switch off lights to raise awareness on reducing carbon footprint. In recent years, the event has shifted from symbols to actions, by helping people adopt sustainable behavior.

According to WWF, the weight of marine litter that consists of a high volume of plastic waste will exceed that of marine fish by 2050, if corrective measures are not taken.

Worst enough, a recent study found that 90 percent of the global marine debris are transported from ten rivers including the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Haihe River, the Pearl River, and the trans-boundary river Lancang.

To reduce for plastic use, WWF is partnering with supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, takeaway platforms, e-commerce platforms, Internet media platforms, communities, campuses and other channels during the promotion of Earth Hour.