Saving Gaia
What Is Saving Gaia?
You must have heard about Saving Gaia but what does it means? The Gaia hypothesis is ecological and proposes that the biosphere and physical components of planet Earth are closely integrated forming a complex system that maintains and regulates climatic conditions on Earth. Gaia was named after the Greek supreme Goddess of Earth and the hypothesis viewed Earth as a single organism. Many actually regard it as a scientific theory since they believe it has passed predictive tests.
It may sometimes be difficult for many to understand or believe and some may even point it out to be another hype or some industry's propaganda for creating a new business in recycling, green group going on hyper gear, or vegan groups on a propaganda. This is very true when each day you read about scientists, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, nutritionists all having different claims with every new reports contradicting the other such that it is difficult to have faith in Man. Like coffee is good for you and coffee is bad for you. I do not blame you, just tread the middle ground. Man actually has no answer to all the problems that were largely self-created.
Extreme in any form is dangerous. In the world today, you can start anything and you will have some followers. Remember the blind man in Japan who has doctors, scientists in his midst and they put poison gas in the trains? There are some that believe that the microwave oven is evil. Why do intelligent people join a cult? Because there is a need to belong. They may be intelligent but inside of them they feel hollow, no EQ, no friends, nobody even want to talk to them and perhaps the lack of a strong mind. When weak minds match with weak EQ you can get sucked in. So while you may read about all arguments on the environment, be very aware the forces are pulling in different directions. So where do we stand?
How we all yearn for the good old days where life was simpler. Look all around us today and even without statistical evidence, you will find that many things are not going right. Floods, droughts, forest fire due to dry spells, typhoons/hurricanes/cyclones, sand storms, unprecedented frequency of earthquakes and its increasing magnitude, red tide that kill fishes, bird flu, H1N1, SARS, mosquito diseases like dengue, malaria, E.Coli, land slides. Now they even have a superbug that is resistant to the strongest antibiotics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwT3Lbdk5AE
In the old days, they would use banana leaves and other leaves as food wrappings when you ordered take-aways. Clothes were often handed down. Now we have only plastic bags, plastic ware and styrofoam boxes. Even the recycle bins which used to be a the car park at where I lived have been removed. Is the culture and awareness here strong enough to advocate for more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwT3Lbdk5AE
In the old days, they would use banana leaves and other leaves as food wrappings when you ordered take-aways. Clothes were often handed down. Now we have only plastic bags, plastic ware and styrofoam boxes. Even the recycle bins which used to be a the car park at where I lived have been removed. Is the culture and awareness here strong enough to advocate for more.
A scarce resource like water is still hugely taken for granted if you were to carefully observe how people do their washing such as in the office or at home where it is common to see people turn on the tap full blast to wash a cup when turning it halfway is enough. They continue to sell drinks in plastic bottles. This is why at the golf course I would refused water in plastic bottles and have to turn to beer which is only served in tin cans or glass bottles. If we had been a war-torn country or a place savaged by floods or drought where water is a scarce and precious commodity, I guarantee it'll change your life. I have fished at a kelong for a few days and the water for your shower "dripped" and "trickled" from a jelly can installed above.
Bottled water costs much more than tap water to produce. Over-exposure to heat from sunlight can cause damage due to toxic chemical reaction and it is bad for the environment tainted by production, packaging, transportation and disposal. It was reported that in the USA, 28,000,000,000 were used in a year of which 86% ends up as garbage. It was said to be equivalent to about 1,500 bottles a second requiring 17,000,000 barrels of oil that has to be used to produce the bottles. This will cause 2,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to be produced in the manufacturing process. It costs billions to be spent by consumers for this simple convenience of modern life using plastic bottles. This makes the Federal Bailout look like child's play(In fact President Obama is looking in better shape than the US economy).
Are we spending money to pollute the earth and all the water bodies in the ecosystem just for bottled water? Many people think that it is safer and better to drink from bottled water rather than tap water. Our tap water in Singapore and in some countries is very clean and safe. Besides, drinking bottled water can cause tooth decay due to the lack of fluoride in mineral water which protects teeth. Heat in car can cause plastic bottles to have chemical reaction that when consumed can cause cancer. What about unknown and unseen factors like storage at the warehouse, transportation by trucks, loading and unloading and could be subjected to extreme temperatures. Save Mother Earth and help keep the Earth Green - drink beer!
"Sometimes, when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed - then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It's better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver". - From the book Deep Thought by Jack Hande.
I want you to look at this clip and reflect:
The Earth is Getting Hotter
Global temperatures are on a rise don't you feel it? Scientific reports said CO2 emission have risen 29 per cent in the past decade and called for urgent action to cut emission drastically. The current trends we are on strongly suggest that we are heading on course towards global warming. It was estimated that forests, oceans and soil absorbed only 55 per cent of the carbon now compared with 60 per cent half a century ago. Do you feel it's much hotter these days when you are out there playing golf or just walking on the streets? A large shady tree lets you know the difference between heaven and hell and where you might rather be.
Global temperatures are on a rise don't you feel it? Scientific reports said CO2 emission have risen 29 per cent in the past decade and called for urgent action to cut emission drastically. The current trends we are on strongly suggest that we are heading on course towards global warming. It was estimated that forests, oceans and soil absorbed only 55 per cent of the carbon now compared with 60 per cent half a century ago. Do you feel it's much hotter these days when you are out there playing golf or just walking on the streets? A large shady tree lets you know the difference between heaven and hell and where you might rather be.
We will have to do more and not just in practising more consistent and higher level of hygiene but taking personal responsibility in saving Gaia. There is a need for each of us to reduce our carbon footprint and do so in unity. Diseases and viruses may thrive not only when we become careless with hygiene but also when climatic conditions become chaotic. What we do here today can adversely affect some people far away tomorrow and vice versa and continue to prolong the earth's illnesses into and beyond the next generations of our children and grandchildren.
Who would be prepared to give up a certain lifestyle to accommodate it for example to travel less or to consume less. Some may think that changing from light bulbs to energy saving ones is good enough and that they have played their part. Curbing deforestation on land together with a restoration of marine ecosystem could reduce up to 25% of the carbon emissions. But each day we are dumping 25 million tonnes of carbon into the ocean turning it more acidic and hence posing a huge threat to organisms, it was reported.
If you believe that God created the earth or even if you don't, you could still see everything works in rhythmic clockwork, in cycles and seasons. Some folks will die and some babies are born. Plants wither but new seeds are dispersed, die and shall grow again. Man, animals, the birds and the bees, they renew themselves in their own likeness. The earth is suspended in space, in the middle of nowhere with nothing attached or to hold it and mind you it is spinning and revolving while you are busy doing so many other things.
If the earth drops a little further up or down or tilt slightly to the left or right many things will change and many people will perish as it will be too blazing hot somewhere and freezing elsewhere. To satisfy Man's greed to have more, to reap more money (I'm talking about unethical greed) they have to produce more, sell more, take short cuts, use illegal substances leading to natural disasters, diseases, destruction of rain forests where many of life's true secrets have yet to be discovered like maybe a cure for cancer or something else can be found in some trees and plants. One degree increase in temperature alone could flood low-lying coastlines of major cities. People die from the heat or cold with extreme temperature changes.
United Nation's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change recommended that we do not eat meat, ride a bike, be a frugal shopper to put the brakes on global warming. Meat was singled out as having a huge carbon footprint, a carbon intensive commodity. It was claimed that 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock and a shift to Vegan diet could cut climate change mitigation costs by 80%. They have the support of the world's most famous vegetarian - Sir Paul McCartney.
My meat-eating friends have a fight on. Many people out there love animals because they are delicious. Sometimes in such lobby groups, for example Vegans may push the agenda and the envelope but they are not wrong in many ways with the points presented but some other professors could still dispute a few of these points. Someone once told me that human beings have teeth and intestines that are much closer to cows than tigers, so what is the correct diet? In biblical times of Adam and Eve, they originally consume nuts, plants, herbs, fruits and vegetables.
Albert Einstein said: "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet". Buddhists believe in karma (as you sow, so shall you reap) and many became vegetarians as they feel that it is bad karma since animals are being killed.
The rich and developed countries are expecting the developing ones like China and India to do more in scaling down or to do so using green technologies and in their last meeting it seemed to have reach a stalemate. It is going to be difficult, like selling goods and service in a market at different price points. China and India can point out the destruction carried out by these developed countries in the past and now that they are growing rapidly why do they have to be controlled or develop at higher costs?
We ate from banana (think nasi lemak and mee goreng) and opeh (think hor fun) leaves. Opeh is actually upih in malay. It is not really a leaf but more of the sheath of the certain type of palm tree. It keeps food warm for a longer period and somehow more flavourful. There was a time where not many people have the simple luxury of light let alone to own cars. Success brings with it a host of various problems at the personal and national level. With abundance, it breeds contempt. We live our lives in a quick and fast way of the world - 3-in-1 coffee/tea, cup noodles, fast food, buy-use-discard which all leads to faster and quicker deaths. The corporate and business world is not free from blame either usually making lots of useless gifts for their customers.
Now right here, right now where you are, what does all these bickering means to you? What can you do about it? What is your stand? How should you contribute? Is our support for recycling sufficient? How about our education and awareness? As a simpleton peasant, what I do know is that I hate to eat from styrofoam plates and bowls and using plastic utensils. I also feel that our recycling system here is not sufficient. Today, we are living in a world of plenty. In the old days, the eldest child's clothes is handed down where today each child has new sets of them. Very often, we use our imagination to create our own toys out of discarded card boards, wood panels, sticks, etc.
We personally buy and give out clueless or meaningless gifts too to friends, colleagues, staffs and bosses during certain occasions and during Christmas. At this point in our lives, most of us could afford some decency in terms of a roof over our heads and three square meals a day, so why not put these money you have to better and more productive use by giving them to those who really need them most - like some charities.
The earth and the world go around in a circle and in cycles. We reap what we sow. It is really a vicious cycle. Because we wanted more we have to work harder to attain them spending more time to achieve "it" and at the other end of the spectrum, you have to work harder to produce more to satisfy the consumer demand and also to earn more. You will also have to make it not just better but cheaper and also much faster driving yourself to the ground and to a grinding halt one day. Will that be sooner than we think?
You are therefore, the the 3-in-1 yourself or more - the buyer, the worker, the seller and everything in between in the whole chain of things. Because you demanded more things and want them faster you shall have to work harder and faster. Some are higher up in the chain, some in the middle and others lower. Very soon, we may have to save ourselves other than Gaia. Let us stop choking and suffocating Gaia and ourselves. We save Gaia to save ourselves and save ourselves to save Gaia. It is intertwined, one cannot go without the other. Now is yet and yet is now! The earth is continuously revolving and rotating which means that just when you thought you are in front as an individual or a nation you will also go behind because the earth is round, revolving and in rotation.
Think Michael Jackson's "We Are The World":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d87N9GIW2I
Yes, We Are The World. Hey, he's talking about you man, don't look around. You that's right you. You Are The World. You are that man in the mirror. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change. You change yourself you change the world!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d87N9GIW2I
Yes, We Are The World. Hey, he's talking about you man, don't look around. You that's right you. You Are The World. You are that man in the mirror. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change. You change yourself you change the world!
Finally, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. If you do not do this for yourselves, do it for your children and our lovely world. We are at best journeyman who pass through this way but once and are only the temporal guardians. The inspiration and role model you play will be your long-lasting legacy when our journey ends. Maybe even this is not enough but it is a start.
This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life and peace will return. - Bertrand Russell.
I'm not preaching anything but do be more aware of what's going on. When they show you the melting glaciers in the North Pole, they are real. We can't force countries to do things which may not be fair as each are at different stage of development but individually, you and I can decide on small things that we can do that makes sense as you and I together makes the world. What have you done?
What I've Done- Linkin Park - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtnGjBlwwxE
There have been super earthquakes at higher frequency in recent times. People are asking me again. It makes interesting discussions. Some pointed to 2012. I will have my say. Watch this space! Nothing is too big or too small for the guru.
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