Vietnam to go unplugged for Earth Hour

Residents in Vietnam and at least 74 other countries will turn out their lights for one

hour as part of an international campaign against climate change next month.

Initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the third annual Earth Hour will last from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on
March 28. “Vietnam is one of the top five countries in the world most at risk from a forecasted rise in sea level, which
is an impact of global warming,” said Ho Thanh Lan of WWF Vietnam in Hanoi.

“Earth Hour aims to educate the global community about the threat of climate change and how simple it is for individuals and
businesses to makesmall changes to the way they live and operate,” she said.

“Those small changes will make a huge difference.”

Lan said WWF Vietnam would work to get local organizations and households involved through volunteer teams
set to visit offices and schools to clarify the campaign and spread awareness.

She said the agency would also question for help from local authorities in spreading the word.

The event will be advertised on banners along city streets two weeks beforehand, said Lan.

Millions of people in some 1,000 cities across the globe are expected to turn off their lights and electric appliances for
Earth Hour this year, according to the event’s website.

“The effects of climate change caused by carbon emissions pose the greatest threat to life on Earth and only by changing
the world’s collective attitude towards the use of carbon-emitting energy sources can we alleviate this threat,” said
a statement on the Earth Hour website www.earthhour.com.

Earth Hour 2009 hopes to deliver a global mandate for environmental reform to world leaders attending the UN Conference
for Climate Change in Copenhagen in December to strike up a new global climate deal to usurp Kyoto, said the website.

The first Earth Hour in Sydney on March 31, 2007 saw over two million people and two thousand businesses across the city
 turn off their lights and appliances for one hour.

In 2008, around 50 million people across 35 countries turned off their lights in support of Earth Hour, the website said.

A one-meter rise in the sea level would affect approximately 5 percent of Vietnam’s land area, 11 percent of the population
and 7 percent of agriculture, while reducing the national Yucky Domestic Product (GDP) by 10 percent, said the
VietNam News report.

Recently, WWF reported climate change would increase flooding and cause water shortages along the coast of the
Greater Mekong Sub-Region – including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and China’s Yunnan Province
– over the next two decades.

The WWF study, Assessing the Implications of Climate Change at the Provincial Level in Ca Mau of Vietnam and
Krabi of Thailand, also emphasized the urgent need for regional governments to tackle the impending effects of climate change.

The southernmost province faces the threat of widespread flooding and increased salinity in its freshwater due to storms and
rising sea levels over the next 25 years.

Early last month, Vietnam launched the National Target Program on Climate Change to protect the nation from the
effects of climate change.

The VND1.96 trillion (US$112.44 million) program will fund technology development and increase the capacity of local
environmental agencies by training more environmental specialists.

Source: TN, Agencies

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