Let me proclaim here: I am not going to turn everything off for one hour at 8.30pm on 28th March 2009.
I don’t think that turning your lights off for one hour will save the Earth. What is the point? Will 1 hour’s worth of electricity save the rainforests, prevent poison spewing from factories or suddenly makes the Earth live longer?
Sorry, I’m not buying that load of garbage.
Earth Hour works as an awareness tool, nothing more. While it’s always good to raise awareness, I do hope that people will realize that there is a lot more that needs to be done after that 1 hour no-electricity binge.
Being environmentally friendly is a personal choice that needs to take root at the very inner nature of a person. Only if it is ingrained as such, will the person be more aware of his or her actions and habits, and make that little everyday changes which when accumulated, will make a more lasting and definite impact.
Right… Easier said than done.
Take the Earth Hour concert event that will be held on 28th March 2009 at Singapore’s Esplanade Park. Is this really beneficial? How much do you want to bet that after the concert is over, there will be piles of melted wax, paper plates and paper cups all over the place? I doubt that Esplanade Park will be more “clean and green” after a concert, even though it is aimed at raising awareness of environmental issues. Wanna bet how many of those going to that concert will drive there? In SUVs?
I noticed a colleague at work has 3 used, but stain-free, paper cups on his desk. Apparently, he had got them one after the other, to get a drink each from the water dispenser. *face-palm*
You want to know how to be more environmentally-friendly you say? Here’s my tips.
Get rid of that home air-conditioning system.
I have lived my entire life without using an air-con at home. Even though Singapore’s weather is warm all year round, you can survive it with a fan. A fan takes much, much less electricity than that damn air-con. No matter how much “energy savings” the advertisement for that funky new model is telling you, it can never beat the energy savings of a fan spinning its wheels blasting air onto your body. I can’t really recommend turning off that fridge though.
Carpool.
Seriously, owning a car in Singapore is not cheap and will always be a losing proposition. Yet many of us, me included, do wish to own one just for pure convenience. I’ve driven to-and-from the office once and it struck me while I was moving slowly on the jam-packed expressway: almost all the vehicles only has the driver in it, including me. If we could somehow carpool with just one passenger, traffic would be cut by half! Of course, this would be in an ideal world where no one is evil, the sun shines smilingly and backstabbers are beaten to death. In money-obsessed Singapore, where I know of people who would go to great lengths to recover that one dollar back, I really can’t see this happening, especially because it is difficult to properly quantify the exact amount of petrol that has to be divided and taking into account how much the blood, sweat and tears of the driver would cost. So, I will chalk this one up to the “Dream On!” list.
Get a bike!
Seriously, a bicycle to me is the best form of personal transport. It’s fuel-less and it’s healthy. What more could you ask for? It’s great to see the Park Connector Network initiative by National Parks Singapore. Once I got my own house, I will definitely have 2 personal bikes: one for blasting through the trails, and another for going to the nearby market, complete with a front toddler seat (and maybe a rear seat for mommy). 
Any more effective tips that would be simple in nature to implement but we’re just too darned lazy to do? If you have any, be sure to write them below. I’m always attempting to better myself. (I said, “attempting“, not “definitely want to“..)
Oh, and no stupid tips, like how Google searches are bad for the environment, or how fat people are causing global warming. If you give me these tips, make sure by tomorrow, you’re casting away society and decide to live naked in the Amazon rainforest. (Bonus points for guessing which book has that ending!)
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