heal the world. for you can for me and the entire human race. there are people dying.

i am actually relieved that the UNFCCC has shelved the idea of carbon capturing at least for the year. in my opinion, the studies on the implications of carbon capturing has just been too short sighted.

carbon capture is roughly this: you know all that smoke released in the air from factories etc? well, there is a way to separate the GHG gasses from the smoke and channel them somewhere else. what you get then, is the release of water vapors and clean discharge. so now the question is, now that the gasses have been separated, where do we put all this carbon? well, some people say we can park it in the oceans, ponds and lakes, or bury them in the soil underground. over time, through natural processes such as photosynthesis, carbon will be changed back to hydrocarbons or oxygen and be clean again.

so now my question is, how much carbon can you actually sweep under the earth’s rugs before someone trips over? duh, just because all that carbon – and we are talking about carbon in the millions of tonnes – is not in the atmosphere, does not mean that it vanishes. planting it in the soil or the water means it is still around. instead of poisoning the air (which it is still doing, btw), we poison the soil and water channels.

and i know we can change the chemical compounds of carbon once we have captured it. so tell me now who’s going to do it? no matter how much algae you put on the waters or bacterias you put in the soil, the human production of carbon is far more that what nature can cope with. and nature, just like us, can die out of overconsumption too. forcing photosynthesis on nature is like force feeding an already obese person. the effects are not pretty.

the whole idea is to reduce carbons. and i know people are arguing about a new treaty or an expansion of kyoto. and i am actually leaning towards having a new politically binding document which builds from kyoto. i want something stricter and more heavy duty. i think china, scolding the pants off the annex1 countries is admirable. but unlike china, i think the new treaty should be unilateral. funds should flow from the developed countries to developing countries, but developing countries must commit to large reductions too. only then, can these blocs of small and developing countries can gang up on the likes of the US and really make their point.

but that’s just me being debater-ish. i was talking about carbon capture before i digressed.

personally, i have my doubts about CDM and its projects. in my opinion, things like carbon trading and cabon capturing only give polluting countries and organisations an excuse or a free and easy ticket out of their responsibilities, so longs as they can pay for it. at the same time, asking developing countries to commit to slow growth borders on the absurd.

i say, change is an order. and not change who to pay for the same amount of pollution. i am saying toss out the old technology and bring in the new ones. i am saying, change the way we work. change the way we play. change the way we live.

i’m starting with the man in the mirror. i’m asking him to change his way. ~ michael jackson

following the copenhagen proceedings and press conferences via webcast has been greatly exciting and frustrating at the same time. i simply cannot imagine what i would do if i was actually there in denmark. seriously, i really wouldn’t know if i would be one of those screaming at the airport, or behaving so that i would be allowed in the conference facilities. i know a lot of people who are pessimistic about the outcome of the conference, but even with all the cynicism, i have a good feeling about this. i think something will happen. note, i did not say something good will definitely happen. but something will.

the thing i notice about people who are pessimistic about the conference is that they are waiting for governments to do something. governments should come up with policies la, regulations la, laws la, subsidies la, incentives la. so much so that they see the climate as a government problem, not their problem. and to me, this is where the denial dilemma comes in.

see, they need to realize that if things go to the point that governments need to impose this and that, our life as we know it will be forced to change. if they impose higher electricity tariffs, for example, in order to promote the use of renewable energy, we complaint. if they increase the price of food, to prevent wastage, we complaint. and yet, if governments don’t do anything, we blame them for being complacent to the trends.

i’m not defending any government here. i have mentioned many times that i really cannot be bothered to delve into petty politics. it is just that i truly believe that change should be a personal choice. that is why awareness and practice is important.

for example, we don’t have to wait for someone to tell us that it is wrong to waste food, we should know ourselves that that is wrong. and we should not give ourselves stupid excuses to waste food either. i know a lot of people who say that they are kenyang already so cannot finish their rice. this is classic stupidity. when taking your rice, you should already know your limits. i have not yet met a single mamak who forced me to take a full plate of rice when i tell him that i want nasi separuh only.

and if that is the issue with food, can you imagine the issue with the environment? i have actually started this thing that i was at a traffic light and someone in front of me throws a tissue out of their car and onto the road, i would totally honk at them. yang sedihnya, they would give me that look, that they genuinely don’t know what they did wrong. now that, is a problem.

and so back to copenhagen oh copenhagen. in the most extreme end of the spectrum, kalau la in the next week when all the leaders arrive they can put all the squabbles aside, we can finally see a politically binding text (because the negotiators say that it’s too late for a treaty already, oh sigh) and we will see all kinds of environmental pollicies finally shoved down the throats of the world’s people – not that its a necessarily bad thing. sure, lots of people will complaint. but this is because we have not taken the effort to understand why and do something about it awal-awal.

or copenhagen could flop and nothing happens and the leaders go home dengan tangan kosong. in my prediction, if this happens, it will cause slowly but surely built tension between countries. remember, if copenhagen flops, it will not be because everyone agrees to do nothing. no way, man. if it flops, it will be because some superpowers don’t want it, and other member blocs were out veto-ed. and you know what, the world will then shift. huntington calls this one of the signs of the clash of civilisations. i read the book. it ain’t pretty.

so, apa nak buat in the mean time? i would actually echo what the copenhagen delegates in the interfaith press conference said, search inside ourselves, and do what’s right.

if i were in copenhagen, i would be singing michael jackson songs in the hotel lobby. yea.

COP15 UN climate change conference 2009 begins

been reading about the countries attending and what they think. despite the drama, i’m actually pretty excited to see what happens. i will be following the conference on webcast.

it’s getting hot in here. so take off all your clothes!

i used to be able to tell for sure that malaysia has two well defined seasons: one that is wet, and one that is wetter. this was the reality for this sun-kissed country right on the equator (because i also have people asking me where malaysia is). that’s how you used to describe a tropical south east asian country – by the rain.

but things really are not the way they used to be. you have no idea how saying that makes me feel so old. but it is just a few years ago when i can say that the first half of the year is hot and the second half of the year is monsoon. and i really should not feel old about it because crazy weather changes are not supposed to happen in just a few years, right? i mean, it is one of those millions and millions of years kinda evolution kinda thing or something like that. rite?

and so, people ask me what i become concerned about the weather and the environment and carbon these past few years. and it is not something that happened over night. but suddenly, i find that if i want to go diving in july, it might rain at the east coast islands. and then there are times when i want to go to the islands in september, the corals are experiencing bleaching and so they turn white. and die. and here i am trying not to get my feet torn to shreads by broken corals.

and then there are flash floods in kuala lumpur. which means traffic jam. and i know that a lot of people blame city planning, but i bet the city planners did not count on it raining so heavily all of a sudden all year round.

but that’s what’s happening. it’s raining like crazy all year round now.

i was in europe a few months back. it was supposed to be spring. by calculation, the middle of spring to be exact. and paris rained on me. like three days straight. so much for seeing anything from the effiel tower.

and from there, i travelled to barcelona, which is just south of france and got seriously baked in the sun. it was so hot, i have not seen so many sun burnt people walking in a single town in my life. i was burnt and peeling. someone tells me that there is something weird in the weather. it is not supposed to be so hot in spring. it is summer come early. people are already heading out to the beaches. dude, if this is spring, i cannot imagine how hot it would be in the summer.

the weird weather is not easy for the traveller. it affects the nature of the entire trip. when to go. what to do. what to pack. oh my god, you have no idea how hard it is for the poor backpacker, especially, when you don’t pack the right stuff.

and so i am hosting a series of events come the end of the month. and my delegates are already asking me what the weather will be like in KL. and i would like to say that it will rain and pack your ponchos and brollys. but is it just me or has it just been ridiculously hot in KL these days? like the kind of heat that makes you want to take a shower four times a day kinda heat.

hello? rain?

so here’s the deal. even if you don’t care about the environment, you got to face the reality that all this crazy weather that we’re having is something that is so totally menyusahkan. i cannot function as well. i want to travel but all my travel plans can be washed out just like that because it is too wet or too rainy when it is not supposed to.

and i know people out there that say that it is one of those things that we cannot significantly do anything about. well friends, i would go down fighting, man. i refuse to sit here not doing anything. even if i don’t achieve anything, and really, what can one girl do to save the world, i would sleep better at night knowing that i did something. anything. and i did all i could.

and one day when my children’s children ask me what i did, i will have stories to tell them. i am a writer, see? :) stories about the places i have been and people i met. stories about all the crazy adventures i had and experiences of growing up in the 80s and living it up in the new millennium. most of all, i would be able to tell them that i tried to save the world. and i really do.

i am trying to save the world. ain’t that something.

there is enough for everybody’s need. there is not enough for everybody’s greed. ~ gandhi

in my social circles, i have been listening for months now how badly our economy has been crippled. how bad times are. how people got to tighten their belts. how companies are retrenching and jobs are hard to hang on to. bla bla bla.

and here’s what i say about it: all of you saying that the world has gone bad just don’t know what bad is. and i have a very easy way of proving this to you. go to any gerai makan or mamak or food stall or even fancy restaurant. that is how you can tell for sure. because as long as people don’t finish their food on their plates, that is as long as we are NOT in some sort of crisis.

people say times are bad, but we still put more food on our plates than we can finish. we still put too much rice. we are still greedy with our food portions. we still push away plates of half eaten food when we are done. and we continue to do this over and over again day by day by day.

seriously, man. you know how much you can handle. if you are not able to finish, then don’t take so much in the first place.

and i am not saying there is anything wrong with eating a lot. as long as you know that you can finish the food, go ahead and heap it up. nothing wrong there. i have an ex that ate rice by the mountains. i am serious. but he always finished his food. because he knew he could.

and don’t give me that crap about dah kenyang so cannot makan any more. then don’t take so much in the first place, DUH! and don’t give me that bull that you can’t help the portion. everywhere i go, i can tell the mamak or the makcik at the gerai to kurang nasi. or bagi nasi setengah. and they are too happy to oblige.

you want to know the biggest nonsense i have ever heard? when someone takes a big portion of food and claims that they nak rasa saja. just to taste? you need to take a heap of the thing and all you want to do is nibble a taste of it?!

there are one billion people going hungry in the world everyday this year. i bet you did not know that. i bet you don’t think of them when you are pushing away your half eaten plate of rice and half eaten piece of fried fish and the vegetables that you say don’t taste so nice so you won’t eat them. i bet you don’t know that more than half of the one billion hungry people in the world everyday are asians. our neighbours.

so here’s some food for thought on this rainy tuesday morning. lunch is in about two and a half hours (for some of us, anyway). think about this on your way to the cafeteria this afternoon.

treat the earth well. it was not given to you by your parents. it was loaned to you by your children. ~ kenyan proverb

yeah i know. i have been off the radar for awhile, but honestly, i think that it a good thing because it means that i actually got a real life outside this bit of webspace. a few weeks ago i gave a talk about pollutions to some business people. one of the modern day pollutants i spoke about was technological dependency. go figure.

anyway, i was in a workshop for the past few days. you don’t want to know details about what it is about. just take my word on that. anyway, it is interesting to see that meetings are going eco these days. this must be like the dozenth gathering i’ve been to this year that has gone green.

if you ask me, i’d say that it’s awesome. and it really does not matter to me if the organisers are genuine in their green agendas, or if they are just doing it to be fashionable. just as long as it is environmentally conscious, no one should judge on intention.

and so what if they get some positive publicity for it, or if they want to rub the green into competitors’ faces, or if they splash pictures of their tycoon bosses planting trees all over the papers?

dude, go for it! flaunt it! seriously.

how saving the environment can save you money

no matter how much we try to fool ourselves that the economy is happy and dandy, back here on earth, the care bears have been on a kamikaze rampage for months already. and no, this article is not meant to do a whole analysis about sub-primes or bail outs or stimulus packages. i think there are way too many people out there complicating and twisting the facts already.

the point of this article is plain and simple. environmental decisions make sensible and logical economic sense. saving the environment means saving your personal finances.

so here’s the deal: even if you don’t buy the whole jazz about polar bears and melting ice caps, you would buy the idea that using rain water, energy saving bulbs, turning off leaky taps and switching off lights means savings in your bills. and the results are immediate. car pooling means you use less petrol – and we all know how precious petrol is. recycling aluminium cans and old newspapers also pays. i know the amount is not a lot but bak kata pepatah melayu, sedikit-sedikit, lama-lama jadi bukit! :)

in the long term, if whole organisations switch to energy saving light bulbs, it will bring operation costs down. if everyone brings their own bags when shopping, retail outlets can eventually reduce costs to buy plastic bags and transfer these savings over to customers.

the point today is straight up and easy: for cost saving initiatives, turn to simple environmental solutions.

water water everywhere

sorry for being out of transmission these coupla days. you can be sure of one thing tho, its an environmental gig. a watery kinda project so you can imagine me going about with a spray bottle, trying not to get my camera wet. unveiling is this sunday. pretty excited.

i think too many people take water for granted. just because it pours out of your tap does not mean that the supply is infinite. the greatest irony is, when there is no water, or when the water is limited ad dirty, people complain. but when there is water, we don’t conserve. and this is not just one isolated case. this happens again and again times a zillion times. we take it too much as a given.

so yea, you over there. turn leaky taps off, yar?

one more reason to end the war

this one is an absolute no brainer. there is just too much fighting going on in the world and my personal stand is this: i find it hard to believe that god actually wants us to slaughter each other. it makes life just redundant and it’s plain bad juju to insult god like that. thing is, people die. and that’s not cool.

so here’s one more reason to bring the troops home: war is bad news for the environment. again, a no brainer. weapons manufacturing often involve steel and hazardous chemicals and toxic waste from these factories are usually disposed of untreated into rivers and seas. weapons testing is horrible on the environment. lots of smoke. a lot of toxic chemicals. nuclear weapons testing – dude, i don’t give a damn which desert you’re blowing up these things, they’re still bad news and they must stop NOW.

the price of war has conveniently left out the damages onto the environment out of the tab. why? because they are unsurmountable. decades and decades of ozone and soil rehabilitation might not even be enough to fix the destruction caused by one battery of missiles or one super bomb. and the thing is this: we’re actually fucking proud of it! the bigger the explosion, the larger the hole we can leave in the fucking ground – the better!

campaign. that’s what i want you to do. campaign to lead peaceful lives. don’t be racist. don’t be sexist. don’t step on people’s toes and jaga tepi kain sendiri. we might be at the other end of the world, but whatever happens elsewhere affects us. people die. people suffer. the earth suffers. and yes, as corny as it sounds, the earth dies.

campaign against war. no fighting, please. listen to shakira. her hips don’t lie.

it’s getting hot in here

i’m not going to pretend that all happy these afternoons. the weather is either way too scorching hot. or its raining. and i’m not talking about the tropical showers that we are SUPPOSED to be getting this time of the year. i’m talking about the crazy heavy sudden storms that appear out of absolutely nowhere. i know, you’re probably sick of hearing me complain about this, but hey, it’s still happening and i’m still irritated.

i would assume that most of the people who read this are not coal burning, fuel guzzling cement factory owners or yang sewaktu dengan nya. so what can us regular people do to not make things worse?

here’s a few ideas.

reduce. reuse. recycle. the less tress are cut, the more shade there will be for the rest of us. more roots in the ground also means stronger earth structure = less soil erosion. the less carbon we emit from processing new materials also means riches soil compound.

change your light bulbs. energy saving bulbs lasts longer and uses less energy. i know what you’re thinking. what can your one little bulb do against an impending global meltdown? well, not much. but if everyone changes their bulbs – families, friends, neighbors, homes, offices, everyone – then we can make a difference.

use less plastic bags. i actually notice a small, but very very charming revolution in small town subang jaya and i’m actually quite proud of it. i know of some small shops and pharmacies that actually put up signs advising customers not to take a plastic bag is they can help it. and the sales assistants actually say ‘thank you’ if you decline a plastic bag. before the cynics jump on me, i realise that these are just a handful of shops amidst beribu lagi shops that don’t do it. but you know, it only starts with a few to make a world of difference :)

use less air conditioning. don’t give me that excuse that kalau takde air cond, then tak boleh tido. go have a quick cold shower and you’ll be just fine.

plant a tree, keep your grass. you know how some people cement terus their garden with ceramic tiles? well, these kinda things actually contribute to mini floods happening. moral of the story, keep your grass. and don’t come and tell me that you got no time to potong rumput and all. i know for a fact that there is a new species of cow grass that memang does not grow long and tak payah potong. you don’t believe me? my dad just planted our whole yard with the stuff. been a coupla months now and we’re now putting our lawn mowers up on ebay.

dispose of your litter in correct bins and not on the street. while your lame excuse piece of tissue is trying to biodegrade, it slows down absorption into the earth itself and hello, hello? houstan, we got floods!

carpool. you got six friends with cars. you want to go to midvalley, six cars ends up taking up six parking spaces. that’s six extra cars contributing to traffic jams around the federal highway, jalan bangsar and sungai besi expressway. that also means six cars releasing greenhouse gases and burning fuel for no reason at all. get one or two dudes to drive and take turns. we’re still right on the shadows of another oil price crisis, you know.

you know the million other things you should do. turn off taps. switch off lights. collect rainwater. bring your own shopping bags. use public transport. use both sides of paper. don’t print unless you really need to. start your own vegetable patch / herb garden.

thing is, we all know this. you can probably name a zillion more. well, we should start practicing what we preach. i know the common question is what change can one person do? and i’m saying, it really does not matter. i know of loads of people who think that environmentalism is futile simply because the change made by one person is so small. sad thing is, this one thought impedes them from doing anything at all. but it everyone did it, we can actually see a change. if everyone who said it was futile actually got off the couch and turned off that leaky tap, we’d have saved gallons of water.

don’t wait around. do it now. be the change you want to see in the world. gandhi. smart man.