Millions of people in 18 cities and provinces in Vietnam will turn off lighting equipment and electric appliances for one hour between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on March 27 to promulgate the need for more action to protect the environment, according to a member of the World-Wide Fund Vietnam.
The program will help boost public awareness on the importance of reducing the negative impacts of climate change, such as global warming and rising seawater, Nguyen Phuong Ngan, a coordinator of WWF Vietnam, told the Daily on Sunday.
The eighteen cities and provinces in this year’s campaign are HCMC, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Can Tho, Hoi An, Quang Ninh, Dong Nai, Thua Thien-Hue, Thanh Hoa, Dak Lak, Binh Dinh, Nghe An, Kien Giang, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen and Binh Thuan.
Last year, only six cities and provinces in the country joined the Earth-Hour program. However, the first event helped the country save some 140,000 kilowatt-hours of power, but most important, Ngan said it made millions of people in the country realize they must take urgent action to lessen the impacts of global warming.
The campaign will encourage people to use clean energies and save power as much as possible.Ngan said the fund would hold an exhibition at Lam Son Park in HCMC’s District 1 on March 24 to display revealing photos of the impacts of climate change worldwide.
She said WWF Vietnam would also organize exchanges between volunteers and university students in HCMC this year to talk about Earth Hour.
She said for Earth Hour this year, at least 88 countries had already applied to join this annual international campaign which was initially created by WWF Australia in 2007.
Van Nam