Rey
Anthony H. Chiu
TAGBILARAN CITY, April 10 (PIA)
--The Earth Hour campaign, or roughly 60 minutes plus of action to mitigate
carbon emissions and give the earth its much needed rest from unsustainable
energy resources caused a noted load drop all over the Visayas.
Part of the Earth Hour
campaign asked people to voluntarily join the one-hour switch off as the
campaign states go dim for the environment.
During the
simultaneous switch-off activities between 8:30-9:30 PM March 28, 2015 Engr.
Jose Rey Maleza, a Department of Energy official in the Visayas noted
34.67 megawatts of load drop.
Maleza, citing
National Grid Corporation of the Philippines' Systems Operation said Earth Hour
2015 tracked the 34.67MW load drop in the Visayas.
Through his facebook
post, Engr Maleza, DOE Visayas Supervising Science Research Specialist,
who monitored NGCP systems on that night put Samar Leyte topping
Visayas load drop at 11.61 mega watts, during the switch-off.
The same load drop was
noted in Negros where load dropped to 8.69 MW. Cebu meanwhile has
a maximum load dropped to 6.68MW, he shared.
Panay Island on
the other hand experienced a maximum load drop of 6.39MW while Bohol had
1.3MW load drop, the least in the region.
The move to popularize
the earth hour came as its main convenor World Wildlife Fund started
calling for action against the increasing global average temperature caused by
building concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Scientists have
posited that the fast increase in greenhouse gas accumulation is largely due to
burning of fossil fuels used in energy production.
The move to switch-off
in an hour at least allow communities to rethink about their priorities
for the environment, Bohol Earth Hour participants said.
In Bohol, other than
committing to switch off their lights and go off grid, Bohol bikers pedaled
around Tagbilaran City and Dauis, using their bikes' blinkers in an Earth Hour
Ride.
This is also in line
with the interior and local government call for local officials to champion the
campaign for sustainable energy.
In Tagbilaran however,
only very few joined the switch off, riders noted. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)