Serious environmental cases in the country, especially in more urbanized cities, are increasingly drawing media and public interest. Now, the youth are playing a more active role in the environmental discourse.

Young residents of large cities like ${bigcity_Ho_Chi_Minh_City:”Ho Chi Minh City”} and ${bigcity_Hanoi:"Hanoi"} are actively speaking out their concerns about the Vietnam’s worsening environmental problems by urging citizens and authorities to actively take part in reducing pollution.

The country’s rapid economic growth brought tremendous stress on the environment, from water and air pollution to depletion of natural resources. Among the most concerns is the mounting garbage. Vietnam enjoyed a high level of economic growth over the past decade. However, the progress resulted to environmental degradation. Now, the country is facing ever more visible and urgent environmental challenges. Protests came in many forms. Others, Nguyen Thi Kim Duyen in particular, wrote an essay on green topics. Duyen, a second-year student, claimed that the careless use of plastics bags by urban residents could lead to what she called an unhealthy "invasion" of the environment. She blamed the pollution to be largely caused by shoppers’ heavy use of plastic bags for convenience, but are not responsible in disposing them after use.

She also stressed the importance of both the residents and authorities to actively work together to be able to control the garbage problem. Apart from the lack of trash bins in neighborhoods, Duyen also emphasized the incompetence of garbage collectors as an aggravating factor, adding that even if residents take time to sort their rubbish, the public collectors mix the waste together. She believes the collectors should receive more education and training in connection with their jobs.

Duyen’s essay stood out and won first prize, out of 400 submissions, during the Earth Day celebration in April held by the US Consulate General in HCM City. The other entries discussed several issues including air pollution, traffic congestion, canal pollution and overuse of fossil fuels.

Another essay that drew attention was form an eleventh-grade student Chu Ha Thanh of the Ha Noi Amsterdam High School. She wrote that transport vehicles contributed to about 70 percent of the country’s pollution. She stressed the need for a sustainable-development plan to reduce the number of vehicles as well as air-pollution levels. Student Tran Huy Hung of the HCM City University of Technology also said that vehicles on the roads had polluted the air and contributed to overuse of fossil fuels. He urged the city to build better traffic infrastructure and develop more means of public transport.Another essay urged that more research should be conducted on producing biofuel so that residents could rely less on fossil fuels. This fuel is known to contribute greatly to carbon emissions and global warming. Written by a bio-technology student Nguyen Bich Han, his material won third prize.Both Han and Duyen, as well as their circle of friends are actively participating in efforts to clean up the environment. Han and his class are conducting research on the use of high technology for the waste recycling. Because of Duyen’s participation in a campaign run by the district to keep her neighborhood clean, she has been awarded a Certificate of Merit from District 6, where she resides. At present, she is creating a webpage designed to encourage participation of youth in environmental activities and improvement of residents' awareness of environmental protection.With environmental clubs emerging in universities, it is clear that the youth are becoming increasingly active in environment and climate change issues. Clearly there is much work to be done for Vietnam to establish better environmental laws and regulations, which need to be effectively enforced. To succeed at raising and enforcing environmental standards, a broader societal awareness and consensus must be reached about the critical need to balance economic growth with environmental health.The Vietnamese people, regardless what age or status, must take individual responsibilities for the state of the environment in which they live, work, and play. These young people clearly understood that.