It’s Blog Action Day
In the December of 2006, I was sitting with some friends in their home in France and we were watching the news. The report was about climate change and how it’s affecting the country. One of the members of the family asked if we are as concerned about the environment in Singapore as they are.
The funny thing is, we didn’t seem as concerned then.
In fact, when classes started to delve into the effects of climate change on security, the Singaporean students (ok there were only three of us) were actually quite silent. I guess it’s not that we don’t care, but few of us have felt the effects as yet. The only environmental ‘problem’ we’re badly affected by on a constant basis would probably be the annual haze.
We’re not affected by having no snow during Christmas, or a terribly hot summer, or a superbly late and cold winter.
Captain Planet only taught those above 20 about conservation and the environment. The Clean and Green Frog has disappeared from our lives.
Despite that however, I’m starting to see this change this year. It might be because of the heat. It could also be because of the strangely late rainy season. Perhaps it is only my sensitivity since I just returned from my trip in France and then later Honolulu – both of which allowed me to discuss at some length the issue of the environment.
I’m glad the supermarkets have started to promote the use of shopping bags these days. You don’t have to covet the Anya Hindmarch really – Using a recyclable shopping bag is now more stylish than carrying those plastic things around. I really like using these bags too because it gives the groceries more ’shape’ and much easier to carry. So if you don’t have one yet, get one. They are more durable than you think and trust me, I’m starting to think the new sexy is cloth.
For a month, I changed habits when at home. Little things like not leaving the lights on when no one is around, don’t leave the water heater on for longer than necessary, clean the aircon filters… things like that. I just wanted to see what difference I can make. And seeing the result at the end of the month on the bill, it sort of spurred me on to continue with these little changes. Now not only was I saving money, but conserving energy too.
There are still parts of my lifestyle which I think can be improved. I’m a post-graduate and have 3 furkids (not including the hams). I try to work on the computer as much as I can so that I can reduce my consumption of paper. But sometimes things are still better on paper. I try to bag the soiled (recycled) papers of the kids together so instead of using three bags, I use just one. Unfortunately we aren’t supposed to throw out our garbage without bags, so we have to bag them anyway.
These are the little things which have not changed. Little recycling points at neighborhoods are not entirely accessible, and if they are, they are more often than not abused. People at supermarts continue to carry bags and bags of plastic around and since the beginning of the year, I’ve only met one family with multiple recycling bags doing their grocery shopping. Graduates at my school still use up stacks and stacks of papers, only to discard them after the term ends. AS still leaves the lights on when there’s no one in the room. I still have to sit in the aircon half the day.
But if you still don’t know what we are destroying, take a look at the documentary Planet Earth. You don’t have to travel to the Arctic to see the damage. You don’t have to fly to the mountains in Europe to see what we are doing. You don’t even have to leave your room. Be it to save the environment for your kids, and your kids’ kids. Be it to simply reduce your family’s monthly bills. Or even to simply look chic carrying cloth bags doing grocery shopping. We will be contributing to the conservation of the environment, if only we do more than we say.
Think about it. Take a look at the other blogs on Blog Action Day. And make that little step today.
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