Pinoys Urged to Switch Off Lights for Nature
THE World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Earth Hour Philippines on Wednesday urged Filipinos, particularly the youth, to switch off their lights for one hour for the environment on March 25, Saturday.
Earth Hour Philippines national director Angela Consuelo Ibay said that aside from the switch-off event at 8:30 p.m., there will be an Earth Hour Camp at 4 p.m. that will feature interactive climate adaptation and mitigation booths, specifically, native tree planting, renewable energy technologies, and disaster go-bag preparation.
“We want the youth to get involved in this event because they play an important role in protecting the environment. It would be difficult for us to find some solutions and achieve our goals if we will not include them in this endeavor,” Ibay said in an interview in Pasig City. “We really want them to actively participate in this event and encourage them as well to share their ideas on how we can mitigate the effect of climate change and save our environment for the future generation.”
Members of the National Youth Council (NYC) will lead the Earth Hour Camp while two new WWF youth ambassadors will be introduced along with the official WWF-Philippines song.
“We took to heart the role of the youth as the key to further propel the country into a climate-resilient one. We continue to engage and encourage the public to emphasize that together, we thrive,” WWF-Philippines president and chief executive officer Joel Palma said.
Earth Hour has evolved in the past decade from a symbolic switch-off event in Sydney, Australia to the world’s largest open-sourced environmental campaign, mobilizing hundreds of millions of people in over 7,000 cities and 176 countries.
The Philippines has been championing the switch-off since 2008 and has topped global participation records from 2009 to 2012 – earning it the title of Earth Hero Country.
Ibay said local government units and other government agencies have pledged their support for this year’s switch-off event.
“The League of Municipalities, Cities, and Provinces, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) have pledge commitments. In fact, the DILG has issued a memorandum of circular. We are very happy that this administration is very supportive to us,” she said.
(Source: ManilaTimes.net)