Former Miss Universe Finds Beauty in Earth
5 March 2009, Bangkok: Model and charity activist Natalie Glebova has joined Earth Hour efforts to address global climate change. Ms. Glebova was crowned Miss Universe in 2005 and has subsequently been active in a number of social welfare and human health issues. As an adopted resident of Thailand, the Russian-born Canadian expressed strong appreciation for Earth Hour’s planet-spanning approach.
“Climate change stands to harm people the world over and it’s going to take global efforts to fix it. Residents of cities everywhere are uniting to show that we can help solve the problem by working together to cut energy consumption.”
Ms. Glebova’s home base, Bangkok, is one of over 700 cities participating in this year’s Earth Hour campaign. Like many other coastal and tropical centers around the world, it faces potentially disastrous consequences from climate change. Sea levels are projected to rise, storms to worsen, and disease rates to increase as the planet gets hotter. Nonetheless,
Ms. Glebova expressed great optimism about coming Earth Hour events.
“I feel the people of Thailand see Earth Hour as a chance to speak out and act against climate change. By uniting with other cities around the world, we have a chance to really show how committed we are to this,” she said.
Millions of people will celebrate Earth Hour by switch off their lights for one hour at 8.30pm on 28 March. The event in 2009 aims to empower citizens from all over the world with the ability to voice their concern on climate change. Essentially, it is the world’s first global vote on the issue and casting the ballot is as easy as flicking a switch.
Earth Hour is a WWF initiative that began in Sydney in 2007 as a one-city campaign. In the first year’s event, over two million people switched off their lights for one hour. Following this in 2008, the lights out campaign went global. Bangkok, Thailand joined 371 cities, in 35 countries to show Thailand’s commitment.
Earth Hour 2009 is well on the way to involving one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world.
For more information contact:
Ms. Suchawadee Khaosamank
Tel +662 942-7691 through 942-7694
skhaosamank@wwfgreatermekong.org
