11th Hour trailer (Leo DiCaprio climate change documentary)

Let’s hope this documentary by Leonardo Di Caprio would make a bigger impact than Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. Let’s also hope more people will truly appreciate the earth and not wait till the 11th Hour.

Al Gore & PETA

Recently, a friend introduced me to an entry in PETA’s blog, on PETA’s open letter to Al Gore, which appeals to him to speak up on and live up to vegetarianism as another inconvenient truth. The letter stated how animals raised for food industries generate more greenhouse gases than all cars and trucks combined and that (according to a recent University of Chicago study), switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Prius.

I’m kind of glad that PETA sent the letter, as with PETA’s style, they will follow-up to this issue to the very end. I’m also touched by Al Gore’s passion for raising concerns for global warming. I feel the urge to really go out there and help fight global warming, but rather true to the title of Gore’s documentary (An Inconvenient Truth), the issue about animal raised for food industry might be a little inconvenient for Al Gore and many meat-eating environmentalists?

I truly feel that even if we are able to change every single car in this entire planet to an eco-friendly ones, we might still not able to reduce carbon dioxide emission to the standards we want and need. Simply because the amount of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide produced by the humongous meat and diary industries are just too alarmingly high. Veganism should be considered as one of the major solutions to free the world of suffocating gases.

If you have another moment, please go to Meat and the Environment or further information. Below is an extract –

“Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don’t have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second! Give up animal products, and you’ll be responsible for none of it.”

Hazy Illusion

One look at the photo, and one would assume it’s a photo taken from, say, Genting Highlands. Or perhaps, somewhere in the Scottish highlands where fresh mists are common. Well, we are not anywhere high up in the highlands afloat in a sea of clouds – we are in the middle of Singapore, surrounded by suffocating haze.

Forest fires… what’s worse? It’s man-made! We are at a point where pointing fingers and criticising do not help anymore. We need to do something fast. There’s a need to understand burning forests isn’t a viable option anymore – profitable only in the short run, digging our graves in the long run. There’s a need to understand forests are important to us and our environment.

While people around the Malay Archipelego are choking with haze, another crazy human phenomenon had just started elsewhere. Nuclear tests in North Korea! A test that caused the Earth to tremble literally, unnecessarily. Whether it’s a hoax, or real, why can’t people choose peace over war, love over hate, forgiveness over grudges, generosity over selfishness, harmony over pride?

Hellfire on Earth?

Frankly speaking, the Chinese lunar 7th month is a month of ‘burning hell on Earth’ in Singapore. Chinese folks will start buying joss paper and candles, to make offerings to hungry ghosts or deceased relatives. And supposedly, these paper-made materials will transform magically into usable items in the nether world. Interesting idea, but rather illogical though.

During this month chinese lunar 7th month, a few companies along Ubi Cresent will have offering sessions outside their offices. Needless to say, there is a lot of burning to do, thus resulting in patches of burnt plants or grass everywhere, and ashes blown by occassional winds, which make the entire road messy and suffocating. The question I never fail to wonder, why on the grass? Why not use a proper burning bin with a lid?

The picture shows a patch of burnt plants caused by an intensive fire at the opposite side of the pavement. What is left at the actual burning site is burnt grass with paper ashes. These plants and grass often take months to recover, and what lies ahead is yet another round of the burning session.

I have nothing against some folk customs, but in this age, burning joss paper and candles? Some innovative ideas should have been proposed and followed by now. Why not just burn one credit card or blank cheque? What’s worse is that the burners have no regard of the environment at all. Barren grass and heaps of ashes can be seen almost everywhere in the heartlands, strewn with joss-sticks ends and candle wax on the pavement and grass. And these folks never seem to clean up the mess they make. If with goodwill they offered the unfortunate deceased with paper ‘goodies’, please spare those who are still breathing and in need of a pollution-free environment too.

If you have to make offerings, why not go to temples where they have special facilities to accommodate such activities? Spare the already deteoriating environment. Stop adding to the heatwave of global warming!

An Inconvenient Truth

An urgent message, please watch this film.

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.

Does Being Green Matters?

At times, I wonder whether green-living really matters, as most around me don’t seem to bother at all. The idea of “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” once so noble fell really short. Are we really taking life for granted? Are we really taking this planet for granted? I guess the answer is yes.

The irony is few see the irony of it, missing the reality of interconnection. I vaguely remember a poster I once read at an exhibition, saying we have no idea the SUV we use to drive our asthmatic kids to hospitals is the very reason why kids nowadays are so vulverable to pollution and such. We don’t see how everything we do can link back to us in millions of other intricate ways. If we do see that, we won’t be weeping and thumping our chests, asking why terrible things happen.

Being green matters to us and GreenTheme takes green living seriously. We strive to avoid or minimise lifestyles that harm the Earth and its living beings. Before we can convince the big corporations that short-term benefits driven by greed is doing more harm than good to us, we ourselves should practise what matters, regardless how tiny an (in)action might be.

Thus the beginning of this blog.