Carbon Dioxide (CO2 ) has been a word that is over-used but yet not much awareness is brought to the real reasons why the sudden interest in this odourless, colourless gas that stays in our atmosphere for about a 100 years before it’s been broken down to it’s component elements of 1 part Carbon (C) and 2 parts Oxygen (O2 ). It is also the chief gas that we exhale; every single second of our existence on this planet. The fact remains that humans have changed the earth’s landscape drastically in the past 50 years that nowhere in earth’s 4.5billion existence that any other living organism have done likewise. We are not talking about the CO2 we exhale but the state of awareness of how our every action from the moment we are awake to the time we go to bed; how these actions interplay and produces a potential “carbon-footprint”. (due to our human civilization over-reliance on Fossil Fuels).
Our current state of awareness might have increased especially if one lives in a developed economy but Action is still pretty much a ‘dirty’ word and the usual comment is “How much can I do to reduce climate change?”. This general apathy is further exacerbated by a general trend of city dwellers to embrace consumerism as a way of life. (according to the UNEP, we have for the first time in our human civilization, became an urban species; ie there are more people living in Cities than elsewhere currently). So much so that even though we know we cannot continue living like that; we resist Change. Interestingly, in Singapore, the general sentiment of many has been that of lethargy and a sea of pessimism; that climate change is all doom and gloom; based on the flood of dismay statistics. Some Youths is Singapore has even highlighted that “it’s not fair! The adults are the one who pollute more but why do we have to face the music”.
In consumer-centric Singapore, NGOs like the Singapore Environment Council, as part of their public awareness action programmes, highlights the importance of starting with ourselves, the responsible consumer and to influence people around us to follow suit. As consumers, we are often not aware that everything we eat or buy goes through basically these 5 stages; Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption and Disposal; that our impact on the environment is not only pertained to the 4th stage of this Material Economy (source : www.thestoryofstuff.com). In a modern consumeristic setting like Singapore, it’s not alarming to see many confused with the basics, the difference between two 4-letter word; A Need and a Want. And the mass-media in general adds fuel to the fire; to confuse us that our wants are actually our needs; as blatantly exhibited in many commercials. And what is the point of a commercial except to make us unhappy with what we have; so we are told daily our hair is wrong, our skin is wrong, our clothes are wrong, our food is wrong, our electrical appliance is wrong, our car is wrong and it can all be made right by Shopping!
It’s not about anti-consumerism or anti-globalisation for that matter but more about the fact that excessive consumerism is so evidently exhibited in many cities. Even if our consumption habits have no negative impact on the climate; with 6.65 billion of us currently on this planet, (earth only had 1 billion homosapiens in 1800) we know our current rate of depleting the Earth’s natural resources are not sustainable. Our goal is not to paint this “doom and gloom” picture but to highlight the urgency and simplicity the solutions are; that each of us have the power, as a consumer to change our daily habits to something not only environmentally sustainable, but increasingly so, to a more morally equitable habit. (according to the World Bank, 1 billion people currently live on less than US$1 a day)There’s has been many misconception too in the “awareness crusade” and we often hear news presenter reporting the “save the earth” message when what our action actually does is saving ourselves and all living beings. (earth will not disappear due to climate change; we will!). Even environmental education like the 3Rs of Reusing, Reducing and Recycling; many tend to overly focus on the last and least important aspect; not realizing that any forms of recycling continues to use water, energy and chemical to fulfil the process and even if we were to 100% recycle everything we throw away, that’s only the tip of the ice berg. (the most conservative estimates states that for every 1kg of rubbish we throw away, 4-5kg of raw materials is used). In Singapore’s case, it is more pertinent to downplay the role of recycling and look at the Reducing and Reusing because most of our nation’s domestic recyclables are exported overseas and the recycled products are imported after it is processed (a good example is paper, there are no paper mills in Singapore).
In fact, not only do we emphasize the important of Reusing and Reducing instead of simply Recycling, we should introduce the 4th R into our awareness programmes; Refuse. To refuse something we do not need politely is an acquired skill and will not come overnight. Just like Reusing and Reducing; as these involves changing/probing more into our lifestyle habits and choices; whereas a local recycling awareness programmes is deem successful when people start to throw the right things into the recycling bin.
We are also tackling the challenge as a consumer in terms of our food choice; to cut down on meat consumption in our diets. Human beings are omnivorous and scientifically/medically speaking, based on the number of teeth designed to cut meat and our length of our small and big intestines, we are not designed to eat more meat than vegetables. However, in many developed economics, the over consumption of meat not only creates health problems, but negative environmental impacts as well. (Agriculture byproducts account for 12.5% of the total greenhouse gas emissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greenhouse_Gas_by_Sector.png)
At the end of the day, we do not go around being ‘moral evangelist’ imposing our ideas on others. But by using logic, commonsense knowledge sharing and bringing ourselves back to being mindfully aware can we convince others to join our cause. Aware that as an individual consumer, being able to change our lifestyle and influencing others to follow suit is not something that is too far-fetched.
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