You see that pale, blue dot? That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars all the famines, all the major advances… it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to cease this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future.

- Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth

Visit the website here. Get educated here or even better, go here. Be aware if what you are reading though. Oil industries lobby their position on the web very well. Do not be misled.

So what is the convenient reality? I shall give you an example.

This is a true example. I am not posting this example as a critique of those few, but it is interesting nonetheless to think of all these issues. It is important to do our part for our planet. It is also important that you know what are the right things to do.

You see, right after the screening of An Inconvenient Truth, being at the wonderful Cathay Building, a lot of girls happily reconvened at the Ben & Jerry’s at level 3 of the same building. Probably they might be discussing about the film as they are happily enjoying their ice cream, perhaps even discussing on how each of them might even do their part for the environment.

But do you know?

Imported air-flown products like Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream are one of the greatest contributors to our air pollution? As terms such as carbon neutral lifestyle gain currency, airflown imports are slowly being seen as unnecessary waste. Air transport contributes a substantial amount of the CO2 emissions yearly. To be carbon neutral, we have to go local, buy local.

Another more interesting information from UN indicates that cattle ranching contributes more greenhouse gases than transportation! Rearing livestock for our consumption is a basic necessity. But when was ice cream considered a necessity?

Ice creams have to be kept in a freezer from production right to the moment you buy it from the shop. Lots of electricity is used in keeping the product frozen in order to reach you in perfect condition. Think of the fuel cost yet?

Some of you must be saying I am being too difficult. Well actually I am not. Saving our environment is difficult. If it is easy, why do you think it took so long to get people started even to consider it? It is truly difficult and absolutely inconvenient.

What can we do? Read this list.

P.S. Actually I am being unfair to Ben & Jerry considering that they are one of the most environmental-aware Ice Cream company anywhere around.

Random | No Comments »

A stunning example of how a good artist never blames the tools…

Random | 6 Comments »

So says Leonardo Dicaprio.

Before you go to watch The Inconvenient Truth, why not see what Leonardo has to say on this topic first?

Watch the short video on Global Warming

Leonardo has a very nice site on the environment here.

P.S. I showed this video to a few Sec 1 classes this week.

Random | No Comments »

I like Berlin. It is a city with lots of culture, history and contrast. I was there more than 10 years ago and I still remember many interesting bits about the place. This U2 MTV “Stay” was filmed in Berlin itself by Wim Wenders, and it was used in the movie “Faraway, So Close.” The movie itself is the sequel to Wender’s own piece of cinema classic, “Wings of Desire.” That movie was one of my favourite movies ever. (The silly Hollywood remake, “City of Angels”, is probably what most of you have seen.)

I was helping Ms Goh recently on her sabbatical trip to Eastern Europe and was giving her some suggestions on places to visit on the trip. So during the past few days when I was confined to bed, I made an itinerary for Berlin itself but researching on information on the internet. If any of you are interested in Berlin or you are headed there sometime soon, you might also want to take a look at my itinerary here.

I am indeed very excited by this trip which is lead by Ms Goh, Mrs Ng and Mrs Tsien. Eastern Europe is a wonderful place to visit and those who chose to go will surely come back most reluctantly. The only problem to me seems that it is indeed difficult to fit so many wonderful experiences within such a tight schedule. 10 days to cover Berlin, Dresden, Krakow and Prague. I am not too sure if they are going to include Budapest but Vienna has been dropped from the plans already. So think for yourself.

Random | No Comments »

This is so funny I shall risk it and post here!

Random | 8 Comments »