HCM City launches Earth Hour 2017
More than 1,000 voluntary students and two ambassadors of the Earth Hour 2017 campaign on March 11 rode bicycles on several streets in the Ho Chi Minh City’s centre to call on residents to switch off lights and unnecessary electric appliances to save energy.
The bicycle rides will continue for two more weeks throughout the city.
The activity kicked off the campaign in the city held by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in co-operation with the Department of Industry and Trade, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Saigon Co.op and the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper.Volunteers also changed avatars and covered on their Facebook pages in response to the campaign. They also danced in a flashmob with each other in the launching ceremony of the campaign.
On March 25, the campaign’s main event of Join Global Lights Off-Earth Hour 2017 will attract more than 5,000 young people in the city to gather at the Youth Cultural House in District 1 to call for lights to be switched off at 8.30pm for one hour in the world.
The two ambassadors of the Earth Hour 2017 are actor Isaac and singer Ai Phuong.
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In the campaign, many volunteers stand at crossroads in the city to call on drivers of motorbikes to turn off engines when stopping at red light to reduce consumption of petroleum and waste into the environment.
Moreover, communication to encourage the use of bio-fuel E5, saving water and other activities will be carried out during the campaign.
A project on green tourism destinations will also be carried out to introduce tourists, including foreign students who come to Vietnam under the city universities’ academic exchange programme, to ecological tourism sites in the city and other places, including tours of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal.
In the campaign, high school students will be encouraged to improve their awareness of environment protection and saving energy.
The system of lights on the lobbies of several apartment buildings in the city will be upgraded.
Fans made from empty bottles for disadvantaged residential areas in the city will be installed during the campaign.
The Earth Hour was carried out for the first time in Vietnam in 2009, saving 140,000kWh, and in HCM City in 2011, when 451,000 kWh was saved.
