For one hour tomorrow, millions of people from 154 countries will all be thinking the same thing.

Confession: When I was a kid, I used to run around the house turning off lights.

Outraged cries of “what are you doing?” and “hey, what happened?!” would emanate from various rooms as I did my lap from the kitchen to the study, methodically plunging each room into darkness. No one was spared: not mum reading her book, dad marking his students’ papers or my sister playing with her Barbie dolls.

It all started when we learnt about saving energy in school. Then, I became obsessed with Captain Planet. I think I decided to take the words of the theme song (“gonna take pollution down to zero”) literally. No light was safe around me. My lights-out phase was the start of an awareness about our impact on the planet that has lasted a lifetime.

Fast-forward a few decades and I’m part of the team running Earth Hour: a movement that will unite people in 154 countries this Saturday 29^th March as over 7,000 cities and towns turn off their lights for one hour.

This time, the strategy behind turning off the lights and how it helps save the world is a bit more sophisticated than mine was as a kid.

Back then, I didn’t understand all the complex factors at play in creating pollution, and I hadn’t yet learnt about climate change. All I wanted to do was reduce my impact on the environment, and I did so in the most direct way possible, in my own home.

Today, we all understand that everyone can play a role in inspiring action on climate change – but we need more than just behaviour change. If we’re going to cut carbon pollution to levels scientists say we need in order to help save the Great Barrier Reef, we need ambitious targets to increase renewable energy and reduce carbon pollution. Australia’s target only aims to cut carbon pollution 5 per cent by 2020 over 2000 levels. A 5 per cent target is like a smoker cutting down from 20 cigarettes a day to 19.

That’s why this year’s Earth Hour is different. When millions of Australians turn off their lights this Saturday (and our research shows that most families take part because the kids tell their parents to do it!), it’s not just about saving energy for an hour. It’s to make a stand for our kids’ futures, for our Great Barrier Reef, and for all the other reasons we have to tackle climate change as a country.

These days, even little kids know that turning off the lights for an hour won’t solve climate change by itself. But Earth Hour is a reason to have a conversation with your family, neighbours and work colleagues about climate change and why we need to act. And these conversations are important: according to the CSIRO’s report, friends and family are second only to university lecturers as the most trusted source of information on climate change.

Turns out Captain Planet was right after all: “the power is yours!”

Anna Rose is National Manager of Earth Hour at WWF-Australia, former Young Environmentalist of the Year, and author of the book Madlands: A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic.

Who is the ‘environment police’ in your household? Do your kids remind you to turn off the lights? Will you turn out the lights for Earth Hour this Saturday?