Why do we fight?

Yes, global warming is a real issue that's one of the biggest global challenges today. But what is the fundamental reason that people are beginning to care? Is it because they love what nature has to offer? Or is it really only because they've recognised that it boils down to whether we'll survive in the future?

In short, do we care because of our own selfish reasons?

Maybe it's time to take a step up and reconsider that, even as we attempt to fight the climate crisis. Hug trees because they are beautiful; delight in the awe and power of nature. =)

Erylynn's Poem

By Erylynn

Global Warming isn’t hard to explain
It leaves Mother Earth crying with excruciating pain.

This hurts our planet in every single way
The changes could leave us all in sorrow and dismay.

We need to stop it now so the temperature doesn’t rise
People, plants, and animals would be in demise.

Changes in temperature due to the depleting ozone layer
We really don’t need it so show us that you care.

Mother Nature can’t do it all so let’s give her a rest.
We all need to try and do what is best.

Our planet earth is precious and can’t be replaced
We need to act now or our home will be erased.

http://www.childrenoftheearth.org/Kid's%20Entries/global_warming_Dore_class.htm

Campaigns

At this point, I feel people have become de-sansitized with regards to
whatever campaign the government has embarked on to educate people on global
warming. Reason being that we have been exposed to the subject with an
examination aspect to it. As a result, Singaporeans have detached themselves
emotionally and view it solely as examination information. After which, they
have become so overloaded with the hard facts they forget the essential
reason why they are thought the information in the first place- to equip
them with a sense of social responsibility.

A confession

I confess: I am prepared to acknowledge that the world has been and will be getting warmer thanks in some part to an increase in man-made atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, mainly contributed by the members of the earth, not excluding me.

People nowadays show lesser concern over the environment, but at the same time, been echoing that people should take care of the environment. Global warming, with its negative consequences that most of us face everyday, is increasingly becoming a phenomena that everyone might talk about, but do nothing to help, or worse still, do harm to the environment.

Correct me if I am wrong. The air conditioner that we never fail to switch on when the weather gets warm; the Styrofoam boxes that we never reject from food stalls; the cars that we drive from places to places, sometimes even when the distance is short  all of which contribute to the global warming.

So why do people always debate so over heatedly, and do nothing to change their habits, when they really do feel so strongly about it? Or are people just complaining, giving politically correct answers when questioned about “what would I do to prevent global warming”?

I am for sure, one of those culprits that rant. But look around, aren’t most us partners in crime?

Start today

As someone living in sunny Singapore, i've always had issues with the hot climate here. So when I chanced upon this blog, it was somewhat like deja vu.

"Sahara desert" (the way I describe my stuffy room in hostel when the heat gets too unbearable) was the first thing that sprung to my mind. I can't say that I'm an apathetic youth who doesn't care about the environment simply because these issues impact our daily lives and it's impossible to just let them pass. And as someone who thinks that the air-conditioner is probably the best invention to date, I complain about the humidity here a lot. Every time I do so, I can't help but lament about our earth's drastic climate change and how topsy-turvy it all is now. No doubt this is largely the result of our own actions.

But ultimately, it just takes a little effort from everyone.
I guess the to-dos and what-nots are readily available over the Internet so I shan't go on anymore.
Let us be tree-huggers, starting today! (:
We've all suffered the effects ("Sahara deserts" in Singapore and other unexplained phenomenons elsewhere) to be well aware of what to start doing now.

Love your neighbour

To the person who typed the post that appears just below mine:

I never once bought the whole deal about global warming. What's all that discussion? Why should I care? I held the same attitude as you did!

Indeed, after all, if the earth is warming up, why should I care? How is it my prerogative?
Furthermore, if the world is dying, what can I as an individual do? If earth is choking, surely someone bigger than me should help?

Talk about big -- why not the institutions?

Sometimes the very institutions that advocate saving the earth destroy the opportunity for the earth to be saved.

If you watched the show "Who Killed the Electric Car" for example, you may know what I mean. An electric car was developed, comparable in power and speed, and of no great inconvenience to users at all. It saves the earth by reducing fuel usage Imagine the absence of fuel-powered cars -- it sounds like we have hope.

But alas, there is vested interest for many of the rich and powerful in the US society to stop the production of such environmentally friendly cars. The very people who have the power to bring about great changes for the environment, happen to be those who have vested interest in the oil trade. Necessarily, the electric car was quickly forgotten or HIDDEN AWAY.

Then I ponder -- if I don't take any action, how different would that make me from one of those hypocrites?
If I who inherit this earth do not play a part for earth, then who can we count on?

I say I ought to start changing the way I do things today. If I just used paper more sparingly, or be more thrifty when it comes to using electrical appliances. If I just used the public transport more instead of driving.
If it makes a difference, I ought to, and I will. Person who typed the previous post -- I say you try to do so as well. If you can save the earth -- why not. Let's not plague the earth for the humans who will live on this planet in future!

Love your neighbour as you love youself!

Why don't I care?

Hi everyone.

I'm pretty much your typical singaporean undergraduate, a product of the conventional singaporean education production line. From primary school to secondary school, followed by jc and then SMU. No surprises there. I chanced across this blog while looking through my friends internet explorer history, and to be honest I'm rather surprised at the level of emotion captured in each post.

Now don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty encouraging that a great number of you seem so concerned about global warming. Hopefully, you guys will be able to effect some level of change to reduce the effects of global warming. Maybe others can be rallied to back this most noble of causes. The odds though are heavily stacked against you.

The truth is while the majority of Singaporeans are well equipped with knowledge about global warming, these same people feel little to no passion for the same cause. I am no different. Ask me about the causes, effects and remedies for global warming, and can give you anything you want, as if straight out of a textbook.

So why is it that so many Singaporeans have the knowledge, but quite frankly don't give a damn about global warming? The answer, my friends, is simple.

WE DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING BECAUSE EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING WAS FED TO US THROUGH A TEACHER OR A TEXTBOOK

Think about it, where else did we all learn about global warming? Was it by noticing the rising sea levels at east coast? Or perhaps the shifting of the monsoon season? Nope, we learnt everything we know today about global warming from that secondary 2 geography teacher and textbook.

That is pretty much sums up why i don't care. Because I didn't learn to feel for the earth through experience, I was told to feel for the earth. And if I wanted the typical, opinionated youth to feel for the earth, the last thing I'd want to do is to force it down their throats in the form of a test or exam.

???

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action
- Herbert Spencer

If only the quote was applied in our daily lives. Friends, how often have we been asked a question in our lives, in which we have learned the theory in school many years ago, but we reply 'I remember that i studied that years ago, but now, i've forgotten already..."

This is something of a phenomenon I find most strangely occuring in our sunny island of singapore. In a country where we pride ourselves on our education system, where we devout, neigh, even sacrifice large portions of out youth, to persue the highest possible educational quality, I feel that we have perhaps in our pursuit of happiness, that we have missed something out.

I have no stand on the issue of global warming. But then again, I have no stand on other pressing issues, like the political rule of Singapore, the health system, religious beliefs, but I am passionate that something is wrong with the education system, which creates what I feel, the reason why I don't have a stand on things.

The Issue of global warming can be used to showcase what I feel about the educational system.

We all learn about global warming in primary school... I think it might turn up in our PETS English text, or in Social Studies. We learn about the theory, we learn about the effects, but we don't really feel it. We then learn the causes in secondary school geography.

But like many other things we learn in geography, about volcanic erruptions, of earthquakes, of physical and chemical weathering, of how ox bow lakes are formed, all these things are foreign to us, and if you ask anyone how they feel about earthquakes in singapore, i doubt anyone would be able to give you any insight if they have not actually had the misfortune to expirience one overseas.

But doesn't that make my point? That the education system either teaches too many irrelevant things? Or perhaps for those issues that matter, we are so numbed by the education system that we are emotionally detached?

Thats my take. I'm not sure even if global warming is real. But if it was, our education system certainly doesn't think so.

Maybe to end, have you ever researched about global warming other than to watch an inconvinient truth?

im not very intelligent and cant write a huge intelligent chunk like the rest of you guys.

but i heard that if you raised temperatures of say shopping centres by just 1degree, you can save tons of dollars each year, and at the same time contribute to saving the earth.

and besides, most shopping centres in singapore are wayy too cold for comfort, the optimum temperature for comfort is 24.4degC.

the guys at ECO (environmental challenge singapore) are doing their part by speaking to various shopping centre CEOS, so on our own, maybe we could tell our school's/office's management that our classrooms/offices are too cold, or even just raise the temperature of the aircon in our homes?

Did you know?

Did you know that when you go to msn image search, and if you type in the word 'petrol', that the first company, and indeed, the company which appears quite a few times in the first page of the search sheet is shell?

well, for all intents and purposes, I am by no way anti-shell, or anti and particular company for that matter. What I am, is anti petrol creation. Anti anything that hurts the environment, anti global warming.

Let me emphasize, that I am not anti company. I am all for companies making money. The more the better. The more they give me, the more I would like them. BUT... I am against companies who make money at the expense of the environment. Now one can argue that all companies contribute to global warming on a broad sociological plane because the action of one affects the other, the greed of one inspires the greed of others, the wealth of one inspires others too to be wealthy, but what some companies do not have, is the morals not to hurt other people, or the morals to hurt other people by hurting the evironment they live in.

To use Shell as an example, Shell might practice good exploration science and practices, but one must question the purpose they exisit for. Are they a company who revels in providing others with the means of transportational convinience, or are they a company whos main purpose is to earn money for their shareholders.

Compare Shell to the Body Shop. Both are money making machines. However, both get their money through different ways, and are based on different moral pricipals. SO i guess to conclude this post, and perhaps in answer to the previous one, one must beg the question of companies, what are they doing what they do for, and is it morally right.

I treat morals and the cause of global warming similarly. It might be a warped view, but it is my view none the less.

What it means to me? Let's explore this beginning with the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". The picture was shown in my class 'Ethics and Social Responsibility' not too long ago. What's it got to do with Ethics you say? Well, quite a bit actually. Being essentially a doomsday lecture of sorts, it was also a coherent presentation of logical arguments which lead the viewer to a natural conclusion which is... we have a problem that simply cannot be ignored any longer. Now, many of us acknowledge this fact but few actually take time to understand or internalise the terrifyingly crucial message that it is trying to bring across. Even fewer think about how this eventuality, which could lead to disastrous consequences, may be averted. Hence, in making the issue personally relevant, we woud have taken the first step in being a little more socially responsible....

A friend once asked, "What do YOU do for the environment?'' I'd like to take up this innocent question on two points. Firstly, being aware and having an action agenda to fight global warming is not just about doing something for the environment. It's about doing something for you and you (person to left) and you (person to right). Being Clean and Green? That's just a government campaign. Trying to prevent the crowded deltas of India from being flooded due to the rising sea levels in hope of saving literally thousands of lives? That's doing something about it.

Secondly and more importantly, many of us would have already been familiar with the three-pronged paradigm of Reduce, Reuse & Recycle since young. At that time, we had some vague notion of global warming and the greenhouse effect. I don't think the scientific processes we learnt about changed much till this day. Why, in that case, have we hurtled so far along this problem and I might add, so blindly, till alarm bells are suddenly ringing everywhere and future projections of the state of the Earth are jaw-dropping?



In my perspective, despite public education, on a macro level, little has been done to espouse such practices. To be honest, and this could be a cynical view, I think that one green tree-hugging activist would not change much. One environmentally friendly, energy-saving light bulb would not change much. One community project to use your own shoping bags instead of plastic ones would not change much. On a global level, it's really the governments of nations which have to bring the issue to the forefront and implement some very hard-hitting policies with immediate effect.

Ice cream

Found this picture on msn when I was trying to blog. I thought it was the most apt because it shows that the world is melting. To draw an analogy of global warming to an icecream cone, the point is that no one wants to eat a melted ice cream cone, and that ice cream cones are predominantly portrayed to be eaten by kids.

People likewise behave like kids when it comes to this issue. They do not care about the consequences, and only think of short term pleasure. ONLY when it finally falls, then will it occur to them that it is gone.

Sound Science

With the recent movie by Al gore, an inconvinient truth, there seems to be a social theme where everyone recognizes that global warming is indeed happening. No one doubts that there is such phenomenon happening, but everyone doubts the actual effects of it.

I think also that Singaporens do not take much action, or do not pay heed to the effects of global warming simply because we do not feel the difference in the environment.

We dont' actually see the ice meeting, or the polar bears dying, or feel the temperature rising by 0.01 or so a year. We don't see the deforestation in brazil, nor the smog in hong kong.

Singapore is therefore, a protected state. Free from most of the sights and sounds which call for us to change. People need evidence. Proof. Time to change. Perhaps the best way to start this is yo show us the detrimental effects.

Global warming to me, necessitates a fundamental change in the way our economies are fueled.

Research has shown that the point of no return - whereby the amount of carbon already fed into the atmosphere will have reached the point where it will cause irreversible detriment to the Earth's ecology - will come sometime within the next few decades.

It is therefore incumbent on the current and forthcoming generation of leaders to make a fundamental departure from our currently destructive and unsustainable oil and coal-fueled development, to alternative energy sources.

Although alternative energy in its current incarnation can compete on neither price nor availability with fossil fuels, this can and must change as more research is put into the field. There have been promising advances in the area of biofuels, for example, and its production is projected to soon become not only price-competitive with fossil fuels (given a large enough critical mass of users - case in point Brazil), but also carbon-neutral in its production as well.

Governments and large energy corporations must necessarily take the lead in this. Even in the case of profit-oriented companies, there is a definite advantage to the bottom-line of investing in alternative energy.

It should be clear that the winds of change are upon us - and they're headed in the direction of a wind-turbine farm.

Loss of wildlife

I think that one of the saddest outcomes? results of? global warming is the loss of wildlife. Not only are many species losing their homes in the arctic, but also in all the human activities which contribute towards it.

To me, global warming represents more than just the rising temperatures which affect all kinds of stuff. To me, global warming is an act by humans, representing their lack of care for the environment.