'I Will If You Will'
Meanwhile, Garganta also urged youths to join the parallel "I Will If You Will" campaign, which was launched by Earth Hour lead advocates on February 14.

Meant to jumpstart preparations for this year's Earth Hour, the interactive campaign encourages individuals to do cument their personal pledges on YouTube. The pledges include recycling, switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, turning off your mobile charger, and signing up for paperless banking.

The ECY joined the campaign with the statement "the ECY will change its office light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights if you will switch off your lights on March 31, join the 'I Will If You Will' campaign, and share these two with your community."

"This campaign empowers people to share to the world their own personal contribution on how they can willingly do ways to save Mother Earth," Garganta said.

The campaign was created to empower people to "share a personal dare with the world by asking everyone, 'what are you willing to do to save the planet?'"

It aims to connect individuals or groups to a 'promise', while posing a'challenge' to their friends, family, customers or members. The goal is to unite them behind the common goal of creating a positive environmental outcome.

The WWF gives examples like "I will stop using plastic bags if you will pledge to switch off your lights for an hour on March 31, 8:30 pm," but participants have gotten creative with the campaign, which has spread through social media.

IWIYW challenges include a promise from a Guinness World Record holder to play a streamed non-stop 8-hour piano concert if 5,000 people commit to recycling and reusing paper, a grandma's promise to get a tattoo if 10,000 people commit to start recycling, and some firefighters taking their shirts off in exchange for 5,000 people agreeing to leave their cars at home for a week.

Last year, the Philippines was the global leader in Earth Hour participation for the third year in a row, with a record-breaking 1,661 cities and towns in the country joining the one-hour lights switch-off campaign. Earth Hour in 2011 was the biggest yet, with 135 countries and 5251 cities participating. The year 2010 had 126 countries and over 4,000 cities, and 2009 had 88 countries and 4,159 cities.

"We are elated to clinch the top spot for the third year in a row," said Earth Hour National Director Atty. Gia Ibay on the Earth Hour Pilipinas website. "More than the numbers though, Earth Hour espouses the importance of our actions beyond the hour," she said.

Going beyond the hour is the real goal, agreed many eco groups including 350.org, a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Named for the goal of reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 392 parts per million (ppm) to the ideal below 350 ppm, the group released last year a list of actions that will help build "low-carbon, resource-efficient, and socially-inclusive economies."