Chinese actress Li Bingbing has committed to be a vegetarian for 100 days in support of Earth Hour this year, environmental group World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday.
Li Bingbing was name as 2010 Ambassador of Earth Hour Campaign in China. [Xinhua] |
Li, one of the most well-known film celebrities in China, has been Earth Hour global ambassador last year. She is also the first national ambassador of the United Nations Environment Program in China.
Li's move will be part of the commitments made by people for Earth Hour, an awareness campaign that will see lights go out in possibly over 4,000 cities across the world at 8:30 p.m. on March 26 this year.
Andy Ridley, co-founder and executive director of Earth Hour, said the campaign this year is going beyond the hour this year with many people, including celebrities, making commitments to actions beyond the 60 minutes.
"The Beyond the Hour platform adds an exciting and important new layer to Earth Hour's global campaign. We hope many individuals and organizations will jump on board and share their commitment with the world. Whether it is a child changing a classroom or a president changing a country, people, organizations and governments everywhere are asked to commit to taking positive action," he said.
This year's event also sees the participation of the social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Qzone and RenRen, which WWF Director General Jim Leape said was now "the third largest country in the world."
Pocoyo, an animated cartoon celebrity, is also present at the press conference. It has committed to reaching out to its millions of preschool-aged fans across the world over the next year, fostering learning through laughter and making use of humor and learning to inform children about environmental issues.
The children can often have a huge influence on the behavior of the adults, said Jose Maria Castillejo, chairman of Zinkia Entertainment, which has created the cartoon figure Pocoyo.
Ridley said the Nepalese government has committed to putting a complete stop to tree felling in a vital ecological and sociological area spanning more than 23,000 square km.
Nathi Mzileni, a 15-year-old boy from Swaziland in Africa has managed to make his town Shimunye part of Earth Hour this year.
The mayor of Sidney has committed to building more cycleways, installing LED lights in parks and streets and endorsing a tri- generation plant to provide low carbon energy.
Chloe Nicol, a 7-year-old girl from Australia, is guiding her school to increase recycling and reduce energy waste. The school now shuts their blinds instead of using air conditioning to cool the rooms.
Parrys Raines, a 15-year-old girl from Australia, has convinced her school to install water filling stations and provide each student and teacher with a stainless steel drinking bottle to reduce plastic bottle waste.
Some of the companies were also participating by going carbon neutral, sending staff to take part in environmental research and shutting off lights and computers when they are not used.
Singapore pop duo Jack and Rai has committed to more efficient using of air conditioning and watching less television to reduce energy usage, respectively.
Chinese dairy company Mengniu is doubling the number of milk cartons it recycles and increasing its use of environmental packaging. Search engine Baidu will also be reducing its waste by 30 percent.
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