(VOVwrld) – “Earth Hour”, a global campaign against climate change launched annually always receives everyone’s support. This year’s campaign, themed “You and I, Together we act”, has a number of significant activities such as bicycle riding in response to Earth Hour, turning off lights on a national scale. Ambassadors for Earth Hour are launching the campaign in universities nationwide to raise awareness and responsibility of students on power saving and environmental protection. Today, let’s go to a launching ceremony of 2013 Earth Hour at the Electric Power University through a report by Bui Hang.

Those were discussions from an official clip of 2013 Earth Hour. The clip highlights students’ impressions of people’s responses to the hour-long lights-off to response to the event. The atmosphere of the ceremony seemed to be more lively, with a presentation by expert Vũ Thị Mỹ Hạnh from “Challenge to Change”, a non-governmental organization on climate change. Her presentation on climate change helped students understand more about the environment, and ways to protect it. Hanh shared and exchanged with students her views on climate change and its impact on our lives, as well as possible solutions to this problem. All students’ questions on climate change were answered in detail. (The voice of Hanh telling stories to students: “I will tell some stories related to climate change. The changes are creating new risks, even exacerbating risks that already exist. Indications of climate change are all around us. My question is how Vietnamese students, especially those in the Electric Power University, were prepared, and are preparing to look at the risks. We can acknowledge those risks and together search for solutions and deal with the problems.”)

Hanh’s stories help students increase their awareness and responsibility to protect the environment. This year’s campaign has not only received supports from students, but also from teachers. Đàm Xuân Hiệp is a principal of the Electric Power University: “I hope that after this campaign, the organizing board of Vietnam’s 2013 Earth Hour will work closely with the university in follow-up activities that will help students in raising awareness of energy conservation, environmental protection, and the war against climate change. The university management board is keen to create the best conditions for our students so that they can actively join the campaign.”

2013 Earth Hour in Vietnam will take place for one hour on March 23 at the August Revolution Square in Hanoi. Students can go there to immerse themselves in the event’s atmosphere, and join in the one-hour lights-off campaign at home. Helping to popularize the campaign, goodwill ambassador for 2013 Earth Hour, singer Bao Tram, exchanged ideas about climate change with the university’s students. Tram and those students also joined in with a program to save their fingerprints on a “fingerprint tree” to demonstrate their determination to deal with climate change and raise public awareness of the issue. Singer Bao Tram told us: “I think being an ambassador for 2013 Earth Hour is a significant thing. Joining the event helped me to think more about environmental issues. I’m thankful to the campaign for choosing me as a goodwill ambassador. It helped me to understand more, and learn more about environmental protection and climate change.”

Every fingerprint is a promise, an affirmation of the students’ responsibility to society staring from smallest things. Nguyễn Hà Văn Thông, a student of the Hanoi Open University, is an enthusiastic volunteer in this year’s campaign: “I joined a program riding bicycles around Hanoi to promote environmental issues. The aim of the program is to save electricity, protect the environment, and tackle climate change. I want to send a message to people that we should protect the environment, not only for one-hour on March 23, but also every day. Just do simple things like when you are driving, turn off your motors if there are still 16 seconds of a red traffic-light signal, and shut your fridge doors properly.”

The launch ceremony for 2013 Earth Hour at the Electric Power University, Hanoi, left deep impressions in students’ hearts. They, the students, will be a core force in contributing to the war against climate change and increasingly sustainable development.