Jamie Foxx, who plays the villain, Electro, in the highly anticipated motion picture The Amazing Spider-Man 2, will be joining his co-stars, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, in calling on a global community to take simple action online to protect the planet.
As part of Earth Hour Blue, the revolutionary program launched by WWF’s Earth Hour, Foxx will support ‘Light Up A Village’, a clean energy project from WWF-Uganda. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actor is urging participants to go online and contribute funds to the ‘Light Up a Village’ crowdfunding project, which will provide solar lights and energy efficient mud stoves to families living around an area in Uganda that has come to be known as the “Earth Hour Forest.” Through the simple steps of supporting these vulnerable communities, the project aims to empower the locals to become the future protectors of the soon to be rehabilitated forest area.
Foxx was inspired by a passionate video from a small community of Super Heroes in Uganda who came together to show how the project could protect the newly planted trees by meeting the basic energy needs of the locals. The video explains how just one energy efficient mud stove can save up to 33 trees from being cut down annually and also save money by reducing a family’s expenses on firewood and charcoal.
“Earth Hour isn’t just about lights off – it’s about people across the world coming together throughout the year to join forces to improve the planet. If you haven’t yet, you need to get involved. Never underestimate your power. Never underestimate what you can do,” said Foxx.
In conjunction with the Earth Hour 2014 celebrations in Uganda, one million trees will be planted across the country by youths over the next year, with the majority earmarked to help fill the 2700 hectares of land marked out for the Earth Hour Forest initiative.
Another global solution-driven crowdfunding project on Earth Hour Blue for people to back is a Colombian conservation project for The Amazon that aims to protect endangered species like the jaguar, Andean bear, and the pink river dolphin, and work with indigenous communities to use and restore natural resources in a responsible way.
The crowdfunding project from WWF-Colombia, called “Lights OFF AmazON,” allows you to invest in the largest ecosystem and air, water and life producer on the planet by raising funds to implement infrastructure for sustainable industries for indigenous communities. Known as the “world’s lungs,” the Amazon is quickly disappearing with mining and ranching causing loss of species and pollution in the area.
Earth Hour in Australia has today launched a report, ‘Lights Out for the Reef,’ that highlights the latest scientific findings about climate change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. The report confirms that urgent action to cut carbon pollution is needed for the sake of the reef’s survival.
“If we don’t act now, the effects of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef will be irreversible in a little more than a decade,” said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, one of the world’s leading experts on the Reef and author of the Oceans Chapter of the upcoming U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
The easiest thing you can do on the Earth Hour Blue platform is to give support via a quick social post to Instagram for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The Reef is under threat due to climate change and the recently approved government decision to develop a mega coal and gas port that would cause dredging and dumping of millions of tonnes of seabed and rock in its Marine Park.
Andy Ridley, CEO and Co-Founder for Earth Hour, announced today, “What we’re seeing is a massive group of Super Heroes around the world who are calling on support for incredible campaigns to address the environmental issues we’re facing in our daily lives. That’s why we built Earth Hour and Earth Hour Blue, so now it’s up to you to help bring together this global momentum to show what can be achieved when we use our power together.”
Earth Hour event activities will be amplified on islands across the world, with music becoming a major focus to inspire environmental action in the places on the forefront of climate change and sea level rise. Reggae artists in Jamaica will perform an acoustic concert for the second year running; and in Tahiti, 5000 people will gain entry to a massive acoustic concert at Stade Paster by handing in a piece of recyclable waste they’ve collected to avoid landfill.
Following the recent announcement that Spider-Man is the first Super Hero ambassador for Earth Hour, the global movement organised by WWF, the cast of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be on hand to help to switch off the lights across Singapore’s signature Marina Bay skyline on Saturday March 29, at 8.30pm as part of WWF-Singapore’s flagship Earth Hour event.
Expanding on many sustainability efforts over the years, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 became the most eco-friendly tentpole production in the history of Columbia Pictures. These environmental efforts, on set and off, were supported at every level – from producers, studio executives, and cast and crew and began as soon as the film went into pre-production.
“I’m very proud of the fact that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is entirely carbon-neutral. We made a commitment to be as eco-conscious as possible during production itself, when we took a special effort to think green and avoid waste; now, completing that process with Earth Hour Blue is a wonderful testament to what we can achieve when we all work together,” says Jeff Blake, Chairman, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
“Use your power at earthhour.org, so you too can become a Super Hero like Spider-Man, Earth Hour’s Super Hero ambassador,” said Foxx.