The dawning of a new age

In our kind of climate, the Christmas trees that we buy are made of plastic. These trees do not last many years and usually after a few years, parts of them give way and they have to be thrown away.

Some departmental stores import real pine trees for the Christmas season. They cost a lot more to buy and do not last either. What a waste of a natural resource if these trees are cut from the forests every year just so that they can hold up some glittering ornaments for a few weeks at the end of every year at home and in commercial places like shopping malls and office buildings. When the Christmas holidays were over I was surprised to come across this tree at the entrance to the Newton Hawker Centre.

From a distance I could not tell what it was made of.

As I got closer I saw that the Christmas tree was made from recycled bottles and of all things - LP records. One would have thought them to be too valuable to be used in this manner.

This tree must have been a sight to behold at night for there were wires criss-crossing it with small light bulbs attached.

Just the sight of these records bring back memories of the days when music that I enjoyed came from these huge vinyl records.records. The particular LP that I happened to look at carried the title 'The Age of Aquarius'.

Here's what I remember of the first verse of that song:

When the moon is in the seventh house

and Jupiter aligns with Mars

Then peace is with the planets

and love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius (2X)

Aquarius (2x)

I hope that when people learn to love the earth a little bit more by not hurting it with their rubbish, we will be steered away from self-destruction.

An Inconvenient Truth

Read about this 2006 Academy Award winning documentary on Global Warming starring Al Gore, the former Vice-President of the United States under President Clinton here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth

I heard about this documentary months ago and only got the chance to watch it with my son last weekend. In fact, it was my son who asked me to buy this CD after he had watched an extract of it in school and was curious to find out more about Global Warming.

In essence, this documentary makes an appeal to the individual to take better care of the earth by not abusing and wasting its precious resources and causing pollution that is damaging to the physical environment of our beautiful planet. It is indeed a scary film because we get to see the big picture about global warming through the presentation of visual images, data and scientific evidence.

The key message in the documentary is that if we continue to ignore the consequences of our actions whether at the level of the individual or giant corporations, Earth will be heading towards certain destruction through drastic climatic changes in the years to come. The blurb on the CD says: "An Inconvenient Truth brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we must act now to save the earth. Each and every one of us can make changes in the way in which we live our lives and become part of the solution". Was the documentary convincing? Yes.

Was it persuasive in the message it is sending about how every individual counts towards saving the earth from destruction? At the end of the documentary while the credits were showing, I took the opportunity to tell my son that having watched the causes and effects of global warming, he should heed the message in the film and be more mindful at home with regards to the use of water and electricity. His reply was "I did not watch this film for you to tell me all this." I asked him why he had wanted to watch the film and he said, "Because it was interesting."

Later in the evening we asked his buddy, who joined us for a late-night supper, what he thought about Global Warming and if he had heard about the "Inconvenient Truth". He had and was of the view that as an individual there was nothing much he could do. If he were to make efforts to conserve energy it would not make any difference if others do not.

Here are at least two young people who will inherit the earth and watch it die in stages because they felt they were powerless as individuals to save the Earth in any way.. They do not, at this point in their lives, realise that the principle of multiplication in Mathematics can be applied in saving humanity and salvation for Earth begins with each of them.

This is what Al Gore is asking people to do - ordinary folks like you and me - that each of us are mindful and conscious in the way we use our resources. By not wasting water and electricity, by not being a use-and- throw society, by simply not buying things that we do not need, by not buying from manufacturers who destroy the environment for profits, by habitual recycling and prolonging usage of what we have instead of trashing things at the slightest wear and tear, we are doing the decent things that a human being can do to save the Earth.

Unfortunately, this message of environmental protection cannot be heard above all the noise and glam generated by corporations that make big bucks selling you products of all types and brands, more than half of which you do not need and most of which have been made or processed at the expense of the health of the planet. The message in "An Inconvenient Truth" is aimed at everyone. Even if you do not believe that one person can make a difference, at least, don't be the one to contribute the Earth's demise.

Al Gore showed a photo of the Earth taken from outer space. It was beautiful and I am privileged to be living in the most beautiful planet in the solar system. I have been doing all that I can in my own little ways not to waste water, electricity and to make conscious efforts to recycle things. I shall continue with these habits and practices even in the hope that more and more individuals will come to realise that athough individuals alone cannot make much of a difference to an issue like Global Warming, collectively they can.

As individuals we can spread the message by reminding and educating friends about good habits such as conservation of resources and recycling. We lead by example so that our respect for the Earth can be seen and emulated by others. Amongst teenagers, these may be absolutely uncool things to do. Think how uncool it is to be living in an overheated and ravaged, years from now.

Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 for his efforts in highlighting the effects of Global Warming. The Nobel Peace Prize is given to individuals who have made a difference. Al Gore as an individual has the presence, credentials and means to make a big impact on the world through his sharing of information about Global Warming.

We are only small fries in comparison but our playing field is not the world. It is in our homes, our office, our neighbourhood, our country. We need to believe that we, too, can make a difference no matter how small our contribution might be in helping to curb global warming. We will never win awards for our efforts but we will certainly sleep better knowing that we will not be killed by an unexpected earthquake in our part of the world or be swept away up by a hurricane that has never passed our way before.

Plastics and care

One of the most versatile man-made materials on earth is present in great quantity here in this elongated make-shift kind of store along Tanjong Kling in Malacca. Imagine all this plastic that is practically indestructible discarded as trash. When we discard a tumbler here and a container there at home, we do not see the significance of what that would do the environment.

What others dispose of, we do not see and therefore we do not care. Now imagine that hundreds of households dump their discards here. That would give a sense of how much indestructible and harmful plastic we are responsible for and the part we play in killing the earth.

The following pictures were taken at Ngee Ann City where a mega sale of toys was taking place. Prices were attractive. People were attracted to the tons of plastic forms that they thought would give their kids endless hours of fun and distraction till the next sale comes along. Then the toys become useless and are thrown away or given to the Salvation Army and new ones made of more plastic replace them. Take a minute to think how much space these plastic toys would take up in rubbish dump and how much poisonous fumes could come from burning them to get rid of them from the face of this earth.

Don't buy things that you do not need. Kids do not need another toy. They just need parents to spend time with them. Housewives do not need to renew what they have in their cupboards just because there are sales everywhere. What we have is good enough, just take good care of them.

Go watch Simpsons, the Movie. What we do not need is a spider pig to amuse us and doughnuts to cause us to lose our sense of responsibility to ourselves, our families and our community. Sometimes, it may take a disaster or a near-disaster to make us value what we do have. It is best to avoid disasters by learning to value what we already have. Learning takes place in many ways. The important thing is to learn from what we have not done right and show it through our attitude and deeds in future.

Live Earth - Concerts for a Planet in Crisis

Will these concerts make a difference? Find the answers for yourself here:

http://liveearth.msn.com/

Global warming

The glaciers have melted and have retreated further up the mountains. Whole forests have disappeared and in their place are acres and acres of plantations. Rivers are polluted, fishes die, water becomes undrinkable and whole populations are affected. But we have yet to feel the repercussions of of how the earth has been tortured and abused over years in the name of progress. Cherish the earth's resources because the quality of our lives will be affected badly if we do not take care of them.

What the smell of the air tells us

I have not known for a long time what fresh air smells like. Air that is just air unpolluted by chemicals around us. It is not just the air that is tainted, it is also the water and the food we eat as well as the things we surround ourselves with in the course of living and working that is scary.

An article titled "The pollution within" in the October 2006 issue of the National Geographic written by a journalist who underwent expensive tests to find out to what extent his blood contains harmful chemical compounds absorbed from the environment.

The article draws attention to the fact that we are not free from exposure to toxins in modern day living. In particular, a two-page spread giving information on the kind of harmful chemicals present in our homes forces us to look around us and see our surroundings with a new awareness. The chemicals, some of which are toxic go by the names of PBDEs, PHTHALATES, PFAs, PCBs, DIOXINs and these together with pesticides and metals and old paint are enough to make us wish we can return to a simple life in the caves.

I take the things in my home for granted not thinking about them as producing harmful substances that are detrimental to my health by their mere presence. For example items like foam mattresses and pillows, carpets, chari cushions, hair-dryers and telephones contain PBDEs that are used as flame retardants and they can build up in people's bodies. In the lab this chemical is causes developmental problems to animals.

Shampoos, soap, hair spray, toothpaste, shower curtains, extension cords contain PHTHALATES that have been tested harmful to the development of animals. PFOA used in non-stick pans in high doses cause cancer in animals. And here is the reason why we should not use plastic bottles countless times especially those plastic drink bottles that we tend to find useful for storing water. Some of these plastic bottles are made with a chemical that could cause harm to fetuses. The advice is to avoid using hard plastic bottles.

There are always strange smells in the air. A whiff of this and a whiff of that. If it's not the aroma coming from my neighbours' cooking, I can correctly say that the rest of the smells are chemical. In fact, it is easy to smell plastic going bad. We just have to be vigilant and sharpen our senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing.

As individuals, we can do our bit for the protection of the environment by keeping our needs simple. Now I finally understand why Japanese homes are so neat and uncluttered. The Japanese also live to a ripe old age. There must be some connection between this kind of uncluttered lifestyle and the ability to live long healthy lives.

Ozone depletion

This photo taken from a hotel in Malacca makes me think of ozone depletion and the hole in the sky.

The hole in the sky
We created it through
years of mistreating the environment
One day we will fry
When the ozone disappears
bit by bit surely as we ignore the signs
The hole in the sky
gets bigger and we will fry


I only write poetry to create awareness. For the scientific explanations of the effects of Ozone Depletion, do visit this excellent website:
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - great videos on the subject:
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/movies/index.html

If you prefer to read about it, here's the link to the website of the EPA.
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/science/index.html

Stop and take a look

This beautiful mural was painted some years ago. I caught a glimpse of the man who lovingly painted it while I was driving past it. I never saw him again and there was no mention of who he was anywhere and there was no publicity about this painting that always perked me up when I see it. After so many years of being exposed to rain and shine, the painting looks like it needs some touching up. I wonder how many people really look at the animals that have been painted so realistically and devote a few seconds of their time to admire it or to point out to their kids the different creatures on the wall to interest them in nature.

I will not be surprised if one day this painting is gone forever. It is only a painting, imagine that the polar bears, the kingfishers,the fox, the duck and others disappear from the face of this earth. Do we care?

Flowers for eternity?

These flowers are artificial and one day they may be all that we have to remind us of nature. Will we miss the real flowers? Will you? Imagine that all the trees in Singapore are replaced with trees like this. Just close your eyes and imagine. If you shudder at that thought, take better care of the environment now so that we can continue to enjoy clean air, greenery and of course, the real flowers. Art installation by a Korean artist at Vivocity.

Creating environmental awareness

I bought this beautiful photo frame and bookmarks from the Environmental Club of Hillgrove Secondary School at the entrance of Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve. They were made by the students of the club and carried the Nparks and Sungei Buloh stamps. It is great that students are given opportunities to think about the environment through club activities such as this. In applying their creativity to depict nature in fun and attractive ways, they are also spreading the message that all creatures big and small have roles to play and they are not just bugs or food on the table. We need them to balance the ecology and we need to take care of nature and our environment in order to enjoy them for generations to come.

Haze Report

We expect the haze to be back this afternoon because the winds of change will not be in our favour. Take care.

Fun in Recycling

Attractive bins that encourage recycling of plastics, aluminium and paper are found in Ocean Park in Hong Kong. There is a 'Talking Tree' that has an owl popping out every few minutes to educate park visitors, especially children, where to throw their empty bottles and cans.

If you cannot read, you will still be able to get the recycling message.

For adults, recycling is presumed to be practised consciously and so the bins are less fanciful.

This is the first time that I have seen such bins in the city. They are just outside the City Hall MRT entrance, next to St Andrew's Cathedral. I pray that these bins will not turn into white elephants. Use them, know that you are doing a good deed when you take the bother to throw the right trash in the correct bin.

Keeping the parks clean

Kent Ridge Park in Singapore employs a man to operate this machine that vacuums the park premises. The dead leaves are sucked into a gigantic bag mounted at the back of this buggy. The process appears to be cumbersome and slow although it ensures that every leaf that lies in the way of the suction apparatus disappears from view. The machine is noisy and probably stirs up fine dust which explains why the driver has covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief. In contrast, a sweeper was engaged in a park near Beijing to sweep away fallen leaves. Clad in stylish, black leather jacket and pants, the sweeper went about her work producing little noise and went about her job professionally.

Whether using a broom or a high-tech method to keep parks clean, the two park sweepers definitely heeded the call of Martin Luther King, Jr when he said:

"If a man is called to be
a streetsweeper, he should sweep even
as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music,

or Shakespeare wrote poetry.

He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts
of heaven and earth will pause to say,
“Here lived a great streetsweeper.”

I cannot help but wonder if in the name of progress, we sacrifice artistry and flexibility in the things that we do and and at the same time contribute to the pollution of the environment.

West Coast Park

Why is this park so clean?

I only took notice of something that I had taken for granted in all the visits that I made to this park over the years. One morning as I was brisk-walking in this park, a group of students behind me seemed to be tailing me as their lively chatter never abated despite my fast pace of walking. Out of curiosity, I turned around and I saw a schoolboy holding a black garbage bag flanked by 4 or 5 classmates of his. I concluded that it must have been a school community project where the kids were off-loaded chartered buses to 'clean the park' for a morning. Judging by the pace of their walking, I would say that they did not have to 'work' at all and the community project was literally a walk in the park. Further on, I came across a much bigger group led by a few teachers and I thought they seemed rather lost. It must have been the effects of disbelief or relief and then confusion, when they could not see anything worthy of their garbage bags.

When I got home and saw the photos I had taken, it suddenly dawned on me that West Coast Park, like those other parks I have been to, is really sparkling clean. They dazzle with cleanliness because every morning there is a regular group of cleaners who systematically(see picture below) comb the park for litter and to sweep away fallen leaves and flowers on the ground. If there are lessons to be learned for these students, then our parks are not the appropriate places. I think they should each bring a photo of their study desk or their rooms to class and talk about them with their classmates and teachers. As the saying goes: "Charity begins at home", habits of cleanliness, neatness, tidiness that are the building blocks of good character and attitude of kindness towards the environment starts with how much we care about the state of home.

Useless things

Why don't you throw half the things in the house away?" - this was said in exasperation by my son when I was hounding him to keep his things in order and to clear cupboard space for his files and folders from schoolI.

If I don't use them, I keep them." - this was in response to my question on what are the stuff that he has no use for anymore. This time I was exasperated because I see totally no logic in keeping things if they do not serve any purpose in your life anymore.

"At the end of the scene that has been repeated many times before, I made off with 5 empty boxes with solid plastic frames that used to contain his toy cars, 3 old Reader's Digests, one pencil case that used to belong to his sister that was bulging with pens, pencils, ruler, erasers and what-not, and an old file. Now there is an empty shelf in his cupboard that I hope will be filled with things that matter to him.

The photos below show how I have given those useless objects a new lease of useful existence. The flattened boxes will be given to recycling projects, the plastic frames have been transformed into stationery holders and as for the pencil case and the contents, I shall give them to people who need them but have no money to buy them.

As for the 3 issues of Readers' Digests, why I haven't read them and when I am done with them I shall give them to people who would read them.

Shred and Save

For many years, I have been keeping a lot of papers that I thought contained my job knowledge. But really, with the wonderful resources and possibilities offered by the internet, I decided that that job knowledge is no more static and therefore the papers I have been hoarding are really useless and worse still, they taking up precious space and cluttering up my life. I made up my mind to let go, to shred and save myself from wallowing in redundant information and to have a new beginning by sending boxes of these papers to a school that has an on-going recycling project. With the internet, nothing is static anymore and our knowledge of the world becomes dynamic, fluid and exciting. Save the earth by weeding out all the papers you have been storing in your cupboards. All we need is just a keyboard away - for me anyway!

Environmental consciousness

From afar, zoom into the square window in the

tall building on the right.

You will see that this is a recess into the facade and it houses small trees.

Perhaps this is a message to all that while we may make leaps and bounds in economic progress and are able to reach great heights in our achievements, we should always remember that it is the earth that we owe our existence to. These trees that are so many stories above ground could have been given that special niche in the concrete building because someone believed in their importance.

Treeless in Singapore

This I imagine is how Singapore would look if there wasn't a single tree in the city. Now imagine Orchard Road with no trees. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle paper and wood products. Appreciate nature, look at the trees around you. For now they are everywhere because we have come a long way from a Garden City to being a City in a Garden. Isn't that great? Love nature and nature will love you in return.

Love the trees

These trees are for asthetics, for shade and for cleansing the air. But trees in the forests are indiscriminately felled for their wood to feed the hunger of consumer societies. They perish because we keep buying more than what we really need. We buy because of the successes of advertisements, promotions, sales and marketing pitches that convinced us that material things are essential to our existence. So we own duplicates and multiples of things in different forms, colour and texture made from wood, plastics, metals and sythetic materials. Actually, we can do without most of them. But if we limit our consuming to the basics, the economy will suffer and if we help the economy thrive, the earth will be clogged up with unnecessary discards. So really, we need to find a balance between our needs and the needs of the good earth by not going to extremes when we go shopping and by our acts of kindness to the earth through habits and practices of reducing, reusing and recycling. Make a start by appreciating the beautiful trees in Singapore:

http://flowersinsingapore.com/Albums/TreesinSingapore/

The business of recycling

This picture was taken yesterday when I was in Chinatown. No doubt these boxes will bring in the needed income for the man who had painstakingly collected these cardbords and boxes for the recycling business. But for those of us who are not doing this for a living, we could do so for the well-being of the earth. No matter that we are only individuals but our collective (ion) efforts are for a good cause. So take note of the recycling days in your neighbourhood and put out your discarded plastic bottles, containers, glass containers, papers etc. If this man makes it his business to recycle, we can do the same.

Earth Day at Sungei Buloh

Today is Earth Day at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the day was celebrated with activities to create awareness and care for the natural environment. I joined in the Stone Painting Activity and learned the basics of this art from the artist, Tham Pui San, whose Stone Painting Exhibition was launched today at Sungei Buloh.

Though this piece of my little effort is a far cry from the beautifully painted pieces drawn by the artist, I would like to post it here as my contribution to Earth Day and to convey that in conservation and preservation of the Earth's beauty and resources, we can do our part in various ways. We can offer what we do best at be it our physical effort in cleaning up the swamps or just adding some colours to a piece of stone the way I have done. This humble contribution of mine is my milestone to do more for myself, for others and for the Earth.

http://www.sbwr.org.sg/news/onlinebulletin/index.htm#earthday

Multiple conversations

Are we serious about saving the earth?
Yes we are
Can we really make a difference?
Depends
How many people really bother?
A minority of people who care enough
What about the rest?
No time, let others do it

Meanwhile...

Everything we do not need goes into the garbage
Things we have no use for, we throw
Food that cannot be finished, cannot be kept
Then why cook or order so much?
Cos' it is not easy to estimate
The Chinese have a saying, "The eye is wider than the stomach"
Don't you feel guilty about wasting food?
It's really not that much we throw away
What about water that runs down the tap
while you soap yourself in the shower
That's part and parcel of keeping clean
Imagine so much water running down the sink
good, clean water disappearing, wasted while we
brush our teeth, rinse our cups, wash our hands
sparkling water that is cleaner than the water in the
drains, the khlongs where people do 101 things in their daily lives
Food, water, electricity
Do we waste them?
No, cos we can afford to pay for them, so they are at our disposal
Do you know that the less you waste, the more we will have?
What for? I may not live another day.

Meanwhile...

The hole in the sky gets bigger
The icebergs melt and the sea level rise
The weather goes crazy
And we can do nothing but watch life slip from our Mother Earth
Children of a supposedly better age
Have no time to spare
a thought for the Earth
Though they are so wired, they are disconnected
with the earth's message warning of
global warming, but then I won't suffer in my time
cos' it will take years and I'd be gone

Meanwhile...
There is so much living to do
We need that new TV, PC, Camera, Car, House
Who has time to think about saving the earth
Need meh?

Don't feed the monkeys - values and beliefs

When we are kind to the earth we are also kind to all living beings. We should not intentionally hurt another person or animal. Increasingly we are reading reports about people killing others, abuse of children, extreme cruelty to animals. These reports got me thinking about what I should do about this blog. The intention was to create awareness amongst colleagues about the need make recycling a part of their lives whether at home or at work.

Since my first posting till now, I have given enough evidence of how I have, through reflection and action, consciously practised recycling because I have thought deeply about my own values about the environment around me and my beliefs that I have to do something, no matter how small, to preserve it. At this point, I would like to turn my focus towards nature and how we can do our bit to preserve it in order to save the earth in terms of how we value and obey the laws of nature.

This new angle on 'Saving the Earth' begins with an observation I made at the Upper Peirce Reservoir one weekend. Along the road leading to the reservoir and the park, there were gigantic bill boards the size of a cinema screen with visuals telling visitors NOT to FEED the MONKEYS. There was even a poem on why we should not feed them at the entrance to the reservoir. Despite these, there were people who stopped their cars by the roadside to feed the families of monkeys that are by now trained to take peanuts or bananas from these ignorant adults all out to amuse their clueless offsprings.

What was even worse, I saw a group of adults and kids in the area next to the toilet feeding the monkeys. I would not waste my time and blog space to feature them here except that if you look closely at the photo below, you will see a mother teaching her toddler how to feed a monkey that is about the same size as the little girl. As a mother, I would keep my kids away from wild animals (these monkeys are in no way tame even though they take food from your hands) for fear that they would suddenly turn vicious and attack my child. That I thought was a natural instinct of a mother but I was wrong. I look again at the photo and I think that in order for us to do something in a particular way, we must first examine our values about how we feel about what we have been asked to do. Secondly, I believe that what we value in life is there for all to see in the way we behave towards others and in the way we conduct ourselves.

This photo to me has these messages: If you value nature, you will NOT FEED THE MONKEYS, if you do not value nature, you will feed them for your own entertainment and the monkeys can perish or become a nuisance in the environment for all you care. Message #2: if you value your children, you will not endanger them by doing what the mother did in the photo, unless I am wrong because I am making an assumption that the family did not live in a circus environment where the kids grow up side by side with wild animals as playmates.

Recycling Day again

Tomorrow is recycling day at my housing estate and I have got my two bags ready for collection. Yesterday, I received a letter to inform me that the National Environment Agency has appointed a new refuse collection service provider from 1 April. Enclosed in the envelope was a blue trash bag and a schedule of the year's collection dates. Ironically, the letter and the schedule were printed on separate sheets when they could have been printed back-to-back and that would have resulted in saving reams of paper. The schedule has this caption "MAKE RECYCLING OURWAY OF LIFE". I wonder if they really mean what they say. Many times, we chant slogans without knowing what the message is about. We can be forgiven but I don't think that a service provider has any justification for not practising what they preach especially when they have been appointed by the NEA. I also wonder if my present garbage collectors who have served this area for as long as I have been here will no longer be seen. I hope they still have their jobs serving other areas in Singapore. Life here seems to be about cutting cost and making profits and we in our bid to become the best always in all aspects of our work to achieve this goal, have also cut our ties with our hearts.

Motivation to recycle

In the Asia section of today's Straits Times, there was a photo of a woman in Shanghai dragging a large trolley shopping bag across a pavement lined with rubbish and the caption reads "Cash in Trash". The woman was looking for materials for recycling and for her efforts she would be paid for items that could be recyled such as rubber shoes, glass and plastic. According to the article, she could earn up to 500 yuan or S$100 a month. If you could see the photo here or can imagine what this photo is about, you will not envy her or want to be in her shoes. She is not collecting these items to save the earth but to earn a livelihood and she is able to do that because corporations need these materials to save costs. There are two types of motivation - extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation stems from something that is dangled before you such as cash in the case of this Shanghai woman. Intrinsic comes from within us. We who have no need to earn a living by salvaging and selling materials for recycling purposes could take a second look at the picture and ask ourselves whether there is a better way to dispose of our rubbish and in our part of the world where such a scene is not seen, could we also be motivated to recycle our own trash not for cash but to reduce harm to the world.

The toughest job

Oh look at the dirty beach. Who did that ? The waves? No, the people who threw their trash ino the sea. It could have been you and it could have been me, or someone else. This garbage does not belong here. The beach can be cleaned and that really is the easy part. The toughest part is us.

The invisible line

Where is this place?

It is where plastic
might one day inherit the earth
Where wood is just planks
not trees and forests
sliced and cut
Where the line between
what is natural and what is man-made
will move in favour of
whichever we humankind
choose to protect.

Think about that line
up or down?
You decide.

Plastic Bag usage - a consumer's report

NTUC cashiers have been briefed I am sure of that about not using more plastic bags than necessary and most certainly must have received training on packing more in fewer plastic bags. I note that for heavy items like canned food and bottles of shampoo and detergent only single plastic bags are used. In the past they would insist, out of concern or just carrying out instructions, that two plastic bags should be used. I am pleased that for once, they are dropping this damaging practice. It will be interesting to compare the usage of plastic bags at the end of the year to see if the reduction is significant. For once I actually look forward to how numbers will turn out for trash is definitely measurable and the results can actually be assuring and comforting if they indeed indicate that people are not just aware of recycling but are making concerted efforts to protect the environment.

More publicity, more education on going green

Creating Public Awareness

It appears that there is a surging effort to create public awareness about the benefits of going green. This morning's Straits Times in featuring in its job recruitment section careers in the public sector, highlighted the job of an environmental health officer in the National Environmental Agency who took the opportunity to promote her passion about recycling. I thought what a coincidence it is to see something like this in the newspapers when I had just posted something similar last night (previous post).

First page of job recruitment section of The Straits Times , Sat, Feb 11, 2006

As I continued with my Saturday morning reading of the pile of newspapers for the day, I saw another article that relays a similar environmental message, this time about cutting down on the excessive use of plastic bags.

Weekend Today, Feb 11- 12, 2006, Page4

Campaigns to Educate

There is going to be a new national campaign to discourage the excessive use of plastic bags that will be launched this morning by a minister and participating retailers are leading supermarkets. The article also gives startling figures about our use of these plastic bags. According to the report we dispose of up to 19,000 tons of these bags annually. Just imagine the weight of 19 one-tonner army trucks and imagine how many plastic bags it will take to weigh that much.

I think it takes more than a campaign to get people to adopt the habit of not using and disposing these bags so liberally just because they are given to us free just as liberally. At home I adopt a habit of not allowing food stuff to be thrown in any dustbin in the house other than the one in the kitchen and when I empty dustbins elsewhere in the house I keep the plastic bag in the bin as it is still clean. In this way I use not more than 2 plastic bags a week per bin. The problem I face now is that I have accumulated so many plastic bags that it is a pain to see them. At the same time, I do not want to throw them.

Whom should we educate?

Our children - responsibilities of parents and schools

Currently, students are involved in some compulsory community service activities that include cleaning beaches, packing clothes and toys for charity, recycling cans but most times the real learning does not go beyond what they do for the school's activities and projects. For example, my children have gone through all these activities, attended talks on why they should treat the earth well through "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" and yet at home, there is no trace that they truly understand why they have been put through those motions by their schools. I have become tired of nagging at them to keep their rooms clean and to be discrimate about what to throw away and what to keep for resusing or recycling. I have particularly impressed upon them that in this house, I practice the 3Rs. Yet there is no end to my nagging because they just don't get it - that the message of being kind to the earth is not for its own sake like those countless activities they were involved in at school but it is a message to the heart that tells them that they should recycle not because they were told or made to but because they really believe that they are doing something meaningful and good. This is the tough part because it has to do with their values and beliefs which

So recently, I have changed my tactic from nagging to leaving notes for them like what I did last week. I gathered all the items that have long outlived their use from their bathroom and their table tops and put up a mini exhibition in the one of their rooms. The I waited to see how quick the response would be to the appeal in the note. It took all of three days before these items appeared in a plastic bag for my attention and proper disposal on the kitchen sink. However, I will continue with this writing of notes and leaving it on their table. I find this less tiring and more creative on my part. My kids and others like them need constant reminding and to know that I am serious about what I believe in and hopefully they will begin to appreciate what all these efforts about. Not many parents will bother because there are always maids to take care of the rubbish. Then, if we have maids, we should educate them as well.

In school, our children should be given projects in keeping the environment green through educational approaches that require them to examine their values and beliefs first and to relate these to the activities to be carried out. Students should be taught how to reflect and to journal and share their feelings and thoughts at each stage of the activity that they carry out in the name of recycling. I do not know if teachers bring students through a process like this in implementing all of the school's projects that are related to preserving the environment or are these projects just carried out mechanically just to count as a number that goes towards school's countable achievements. Education is not a matter of doing, it is a matter of understanding first why we do the things we do before jumping into action.

Valentine's Day - Have a heart to save the earth

Valentine's day is so commercialised that yearly we are hoodwinked into frenzied consumption of goods in the name of love. Sometimes we pay an unnecessary premium for ordinary goods because they come in fancy packaging. Actually, it is possible to save that amount of money and donate it to the needy if we do the packaging ourselves with just a little imagination.

Here's how I did it - I came back from a holiday in India with a shawl that I had wanted to give to my colleague. It was beautifully woven and much cheaper when it was bought in India than in some big departmental store here. I used an empty chocolate box from my last trip to Thailand that I had been saving for an occasion like this and lined it with a cut-out piece of a Takashimaya carrier bag (recognise the flowers?) Then I carefully laid the shawl into this home-made packaging, covered it and stuck a pretty ribbon on in and gave my friend a pleasant surprise. Yes, this is another way to recycle stuff - not things that you would otherwise have thrown away like plastic bottles, aluminium cans - but stuff that are really too beautiful to throw away and that you could definitely reuse in other ways. If you need some relaxation and work on developing your creativity, indulge in a creative act - create some parts of a gift instead of buying everything that money can buy.

Some of the boxes that are too good to throw away. You can also hide the origins of the boxes by pasting wrapping paper on them to make them look attractive.