Unfortunately, I can’t. So I choose to eat the lesser of 2 evils.

Growing plants does not increase carbon emissions. In fact, based on what limited knowledge I remember from Science class in school, plants help clean our air and supply us with oxygen. Plants do not emit waste that clog our waterways and pollute our water systems. On the other hand, rearing livestock for human consumption is the highest contributor to carbon emissions and the grain used to feed these livestock can be used to feed the hungry in third world nations instead.

And don’t even get me started on the junk they feed/inject livestock with for them to grow faster with less feed.

Commercial fishing is depleting our oceans faster than they can replenish and fishing activities result in a lot of ‘collateral damage’ i.e. other ocean species being killed in the process of catching your tuna and other types of fish. Seabeds are being damaged from trawling activities to catch your prawns and other sea creatures.

So yes, this is why I choose to reduce my meat (and seafood) consumption.
I choose to stick with my veggies over meat any day, any time.

Why do I spend the extra effort and money to search for and purchase natural/organic products?
Simple. Because I do not wish to put synthetic chemicals in by body and because it is less polluting to the environment. For as long as I can afford it, I am willing to pay extra and spend the effort to get natural/organic products.

When you shower, do you ever wonder where your shampoo and soap/shower gel residue flow to? Do you wonder what chemicals you’re washing your body with? When you wash your dishes after a meal, do you wonder where your dishwashing liquid flows to? When you spray aerosol to get rid of mosquitoes, who breathes in the air containing aerosol particles? When you apply lipstick or foundation or body lotion, do you wonder what chemicals are getting absorbed into your skin (and ultimately into your body)?

I don’t claim to be a completely environmentally-friendly person. Because I’m not. I still drive my fully fuel-powered car everyday. I still use plastic (although bio-degrabable ones).

I try to make changes in small ways. Use less toilet paper each time I use the toilet, use the hand dryer instead of paper towels to dry my hands (I learnt that using the hand dryer uses a bit less energy than it would take to produce paper towels). Refuse plastic bags and use my reusable bags instead when buying things. Buy things in bulk (i.e. larger packaging) as opposed to those that come in small convenient packaging, which adds up to more thrash that we throw away at the end of the day.

If anyone faults me for trying to do the best for myself and the world I live in through my choices above, they should instead reflect on themselves and what they are doing to contribute to making the world a better place. I always maintain that taking care of ourselves and the planet we live in is not a choice. It’s a responsibility. And it’s a responsibility that we should gladly and willingly step up to, because we’re dealing with our own health and our home. Coz heck, isn’t it just common sense to want to take care of one’s health and home? To me, that’s simple enough to understand and want to do something about it.

In the days before, I used to just toss these things into the trash without a second thought. Now, with the knowledge I have regarding where our trash ultimately ends up and the amount of trash we humans generate, I think twice about WHAT trash I dispose of and HOW I do it.

Today, so many consumer products come in smaller packaging for convenience. For example, candies and junk food are now packaged individually so that people can just pick up a packet and finish it with ease, instead of having to deal with a large packet and then having to find some place to store the remaining. While I do think this type of packaging is convenient, it generates tons more trash because now you have all these little packets of plastic to dispose of in addition to the large packaging which these little packets come packaged in. So I try to avoid buying food/consumer products which come individually packed whenever possible so as to have less packaging to discard.

Another thing I try to do diligently is to separate my trash — paper, plastic, aluminium/cans. I find it difficult to just toss plastic or cans into the general trash like I used to because ultimately they end up in landfills and take years to decompose, and leak toxins into the earth and waterways, which ultimately lead back to us. The hubs probably thinks I’m crazy but I regularly rinse out soda bottles/cans and wash oily plastic bags (when I pack food) before I put them in the recycling bin, more for the hygiene factor because I don’t know how long it takes for these things to get processed at the recycling plant so if they remain soiled, they would most likely be tossed by the time it gets there.

Honestly, I don’t know if ALL the trash I send for recycling actually gets recycled (e.g. I understand that some types of plastic cannot be recycled) but I just do every little bit I can to help the environment. Hey, every little effort counts, right?

Now to figure out about composting…

Given the increasingly sorry state of the world (not just recent events), I cannot find any good reason to want to have kids because I personally feel that it would be very irresponsible of me (and my partner) to bring a child into this world but we’re not doing all we can to leave him/her the best planet to live in.

I don’t know about others but for me to decide to do something as big as bringing a child into this world, there needs to be serious consideration of the future of this kid. Education (or lack of in this country) and quality of life (we’re still in the rat race, the planet’s dying and we’re not doing anything about it) are two main things that worry me a lot. And how are we going to find the time to care for the kid, because given the high cost of living, not everyone can enjoy a single-income household. But at the end of the day, my ultimate concern is that we’re killing the planet through our daily actions and non-willingness to change our lifestyle. I honestly believe that if I can’t take care of my home (i.e. the Earth), I shouldn’t be bringing a child into the world and leave him/her a crappy place to live in.

So yeah, the only reason why I would even consider having kids at this moment is because I have to, not because I want to.

You know, I think the biggest commitment a partner/spouse could give his/her partner/spouse is “The only thing I care about  is that I get to spend the rest of my life with you.” Regardless of what comes after. Ups and downs, trials and tribultions, for better or worse.

It’s heartbreaking to see the destruction and suffering of people directly (or indirectly) impacted by these disasters but has anyone stopped to think why these disasters are occuring at higher frequency?

I don’t have any scientific evidence or studies done but I hesitate to term these events as “natural” disasters because somehow, I believe they are caused by all these years of abuse that we humans have inflicted upon our Earth.

We take so much from our planet — oil, water, earth (to name a few) – and what do we give back? Pollution — air, water, noise, light, depleting our natural resources before they have a chance to regenerate (for those which can regenerate), messing with our ecosystem by overfishing, killing/wiping out other living beings in the ecosystem just because we can.

All these activities will eventually come back and haunt us. Which, I believe, what is happening now.

Our planet cannot take the abuse any longer so this is how she retaliates. And when I see and read about all these disasters, it’s really sad because it seems like the Earth is giving up. Giving up that we humans will ever learn to take better care of the abundance that we had, giving up that we will be a little less selfish and think about the Earth for a moment instead of ourselves.

So our planet is reacting in the only know she knows how. By showing us what will happen if we don’t change our ways : humans will cause the ultimate destruction of the planet and eventually, the annihilation of our entire species.

This afternoon during lunch, we started a conversation on recycling and what we do to be more environmentally friendly.
Note : Our table had 3 guys and 3 women.

Jenn commented that in general, men care less about the environment than women and would not take the extra effort to be more environmentally friendly. She proceeded to ask the guys whether they separated their trash and recycle. The guys looked a bit dumbfounded.

The conversation then proceeded to the use of plastic bags and how it’s good that some effort is being taken by the govt to reduce the use of plastic bags by making Saturdays bag-less days. The guys then proceeded to ask, don’t we use plastic bags to throw our thrash. So we (Jenn, Mich, and I) shared that we buy biodegradable bags for this purpose. You should have seen the guys faces! They had that “Are you crazy, you buy plastic bags?!” look on their faces. And JY remarked that he would not stop using the regular plastic bags for his trash simply because he thinks that in order for people to stop using plastic bags, people need to be more educated and more awareness must be done.

At this point, I was getting rather annoyed because here we are, trying to give options on how to reduce the usage of plastic bags and this guy refuses to acknowledge that buying biodegradable bags is even an option. Thankfully, Jenn was level-headed enough to explain to him that, change must start from ourselves. If we want to start to mae an impact, we must start by changing ourselves because if each of us resigns to the fact that “Oh, it’s just one of me doing this, it wouldn’t make a difference”, there will never be changes.

So I’m really thankful that Jenn came in with a logical explanation on why we need to put in a little more effort to make a difference. JY couldn’t rebutt after that because what JC said made complete sense.

I really need to learn to be more patient with people who are ignorant and explain to them what may be painfully obvious to me even though all I want to do is smack some sense into their heads.

I always wonder why people are people so selfish and don’t care to take a little bit of extra effort to help our planet. Do they not want the earth to be at its utmost peak for their future generations? Are people that short-termed in their thinking and only care about taking all they can for themselves now? This attitude really saddens and angers me. Because what we choose to do or not to do today, will impact not only my kids (if I have any). It will also impact my nieces / nephews, and my friends’ children.

Why can’t people be more responsible and take accountability for their actions?

Some Chinese restaurants will mix real sharks’ fin with the gelatin/flour-made ones, probably to save cost but I’ve been to 3 wedding dinners which had served real sharks’ fin soup (you can tell the difference because the real and fake sharks’ fin look very different and have different texture).
Note : I did not eat the sharks’ fin soup that was served at these dinners.

Honestly, I don’t understand what is the Chinese’ fascination with sharks’ fin. Not only does it not have any nutritional value, it doesn’t even have any taste. But yet, the Chinese still think it’s a delicacy and refuse to stop consuming this dish.

I was glad to note that a recent luncheon held by a Buddhist monk at a major Chinese restaurant chain did not have sharks’ fin on the menu; whether due to budget purposes or genuine concern over the cruelty of shark finning, it didn’t matter. The important thing was there was no sharks’ fin. If there was, I would lose all respect towards the religion and the people practising it because Buddhism is supposed to teach non-violence and not to harm other living beings (based on what little I know of the religion).

However, one thing I’m ashamed of and regret is that sharks’ fin was served during my wedding luncheon. Unfortunately, this decision wasn’t in my control but in hindsight, I think I could have and should have made my stand. Sure, the dish likely consisted mainly of the fake fins but the perception that it was sharks’ fin was bad enough because we still fed the demand for sharks’ fin.

My godbrother’s dad’s commented on this topic :
“We have stopped eating sharks’ fin soup for twenty years now. Every time I’m in a restaurant and I see a table ordering sharks’ fin soup, I will start talking loudly about how they kill shark for fins and the price we will have to pay when we are reborn as shark without fins”

Way to go, Uncle Alan!

I won’t go to that extent (I’m shy!) but I resolve to try to educate people around me on the cruelty of shark finning to feed humans’ unnecessary consumption of sharks’ fin.

I’m starting my research on washing machines. The main requirement is definitely a front-loader. The brand I’m looking at is AEG-Electrolux because I’ve heard that AEG (bought over by Electrolux) machines last a lifetime. The washing machine at my old house lasted us almost 20 years! It was huge and weighed a ton but man, it was long-lasting. I find that appliances these days have very short lifespan. I think that’s a ploy by manufacturers to keep us buying their products.

So my mom’s gonna help me check if Electrolux is the way to go and next stop for me is to do some window shopping to compare prices and specs.

Polar bears go to the mainland in the winter to bear their young and hibernate. In the summer, they will come out and search for food. Because of the rising global temperatures, ice takes longer to form. As such, the bears can’t go out to search for food and thus, they starve. And those who do try to go out, drown, because the ice floes are too far between one another.  *This is what I understood from the book. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or inaccurate* Read more here.

The polar bears are just one example of how destructive human actions can be. You can find all sorts of other destructions happening due to our actions.

I really believe that we all need to take action now to try to reverse the effects of our past and current behavior. Not for ourselves but for our children and future generations. We can’t be that selfish to leave them with a planet in which everything is sparse and with temperatures rising every year.

Very soon, there won’t be any Earth left to live in.