Chopsticks = Choptrees

Today’s (Saturday, August 11 2007) Straits Times, WORLD section page 40, under the Slice of Life section:

Beijing announced the end of use of disposable chopsticks in China as part of the campaign for a 2008 “green” Olympics.

“Restaurants should (permanently) abandon the use of disposable chopsticks for the good of their health and environment,” the China Daily paraphrased China Cuisine Association secretary-general Bian Jiang as saying.

In other words, it will not be a temporary gimmick for the Olympics, it’s for real!

Quoting from New Internationalist:

China is severely short of trees only – 13.9 per cent of its 9.6 million square kilometres is covered by forest. Its amount of forest land per capita is ranked 121st in the world. Now 12 of the 40 state-owned logging companies have nothing left to fell. ‘The remaining 80 million hectares of natural forests will disappear in a decade if this felling continues,’ says Professor Shen Guofang, of Beijing Forestry University.

Thank goodness, finally a big country like China realised the danger of deforestation and the importance to cease unnecessary abuse of natural resources. I only wish Singapore will take up such measure to help the environment soon. We need to be as earnest as we can be in protecting the environment. Using disposable chopsticks is less about personal hygienic issue, and more about a global crisis now.

I have started to bring my own stainless steel chopsticks, fork and spoon along with me for use when food stalls or restaurants provide only disposable ones. You could also make a difference too – do consider it.

Modify Your Diet To Include Less Meat

Americans consume almost a quarter of all the beef produced in the world. Aside from health issues associated with eating lots of meat, a high-meat diet translates into a tremendous amount of carbon emissions. It takes more fossil-fuel energy to produce and deliver equivalent amounts of protein from plant sources.

In addition, much of the world’s deforestation is a result of clearing and burning to create more grazing land for livestock. This creates further damage by destroying trees that would otherwise absorb carbon dioxide. Fruits, vegetables and grains, on the other hand, require 95% less raw materials to produce and, when combined properly, can provide a complete and nutritious diet. If more Americans shifted to a less meat-intensive diet, we could greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and also save vast quantities of water and other precious natural resources.

Extracted from the book, “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore, on page 317.

For more information about cows and global warming, visit Earth Save
and Methane

Axing Singapore’s Oldest Bodhi Tree?

As reported on the SaveOurRoots’ website, “On 20th January 2003, URA issued a compulsory land acquisition order to acquire the plot of land belonging to JLS as part of URA’s redevelopment plan for Circle Line Stage 3 construction. If nothing is done, both JLS and the Bodhi tree will have to make way for redevelopment in 2007.”

Daryl Hannah Uprooted & Arrested

Actress of Kill Bill 2 was literally up a tree, trying to prevent loss of urban garden.

It’s always sad to see a beautiful and well-taken care of garden to be replaced by some lifeless cold metals. As the CNN reported, “South Central Farm, a community garden* in Los Angeles had about 350 people grew produced and flowers on the 14 acres of privately owned land, in an inner-city area surrounded by warehouses and railroad tracks. The garden has been there for more than a decade, but the landowner, Ralph Horowitz, now wants to replace it with a warehouse.” – CNN.com

Meat-eating Is Harzardous To The Earth

Not many people know that meat eating contributes to environmental problems.

Issues include:

Acres of forests are deforested to make way for grazing and agricultural farms for animals.

One-third of the world’s agricultural land (two-thirds of United States’) is used to feed livestock instead of hungry people.

Overgrazing leads to serious soil degeneration resulting in expanding wastelands.