Justlife Earthday : Green ribbon movement

Today is Saturday, and it has been four whole days since I came home from camp and had Internet access, but this blog lies dormant as ever. The fault is mine, for I could've made time to coax life back into here, but I did not.

But here I am today. I sit here on the sofa in a resort on Frasers Hill, and the air is perfectly chilly and if I crane my neck to the left, a stunning avalanche of green tumbles into my view. Here I am surrounded by tree after tree, forest after forest. It's gorgeous. I close my eyes and feel at peace knowing that I am now in the middle of a massive carbon sink, and I wish that other parts of the world could be like this too. Over at camp it's constantly stuffy and warm, and we're always sweating. Is this global warming then? Right at our doorstep.

From where i stand, i still see many people who do not concern themselves with being green -- but then there are those who DO care, and there are those who are doing something about their concerns. Just last weekend there was the Mega Earth Day celebration in Kota Damansara Community Forest, which i so unfortunately had to miss out on due to my compulsory presence in camp. Then there was this morning, yet another of the month tree planting efforts.

And then there's this, Justlife.

Justlife is a series of organic shops that first started off in 1999 in Malaysia and has gone on and expanded into more than 5 stores across Selangor, Malacca and Penang. Their Facebook page is here and recently they have started a Green Ribbon Movement, in which you spot or create your own green ribbon, take a picture of it, and post it on the wall of their Facebook page.

And it's just so cool. Here are a few of the photos that have been submitted recently --

Aaaand, their humorously suggestive video :)

Hey, even you can participate, so how about it? Go on and promote environmental awareness today? :)

Charity : Water

Quite by accident i stumbled upon Charity : Water, a non-profit organization aimed at bringing safe drinking water to the people living in developing nations.

Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean.

Yet there are a billion people on the planet who don’t have clean water.

It's hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in eight might be easier. One in eight people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without.

Here is the story of Charity: Water, and how it came to birth.

The story of charity: water - The 2009 September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Another video that inspired me greatly: how one small thing can lead to another, and soon you find that you have something big in your hands; something that can very well change -- and save -- lives.Through platforms like this, it becomes so easy to help, and to get involved.

Another campaign that you can easily get involved in is CUP: Communities Unite for Purewater, in which each time you click, ten cents is donated to a fund that aims to provide the children of Cambodia clean water. When you click once everyday, you are donating ten cents everyday.

And it doesn't even cost you a thing ;)

World Water Day - Sandwich Mob - the outcome

So, half of our plans worked out right -- everything else was a blur of spontaneity and impulse. Yesterday, in order to raise awareness and urge the public to Start Saving Water, a bunch of students went onto the streets with their message boards.

Went by the LRT stations...

Got a good few thumbs up from passerby's!

Dropped by the Chinatown of Malaysia a couple of times --

 

And finally, we went to where it all began :)

The river that was before Kuala Lumpur came about =) it's just a giant drain now, and with all the trash in it that was contributed by KLites, it's a really dirty one.

Did you know that our planet is 70% water, but only 2.5% are available for consumption for the 6 billion people on earth?

Did you know that every 15 seconds, a child dies from unsafe water and inadequate sanitation?

Why should we save water, anyway? Does it really make a difference? Why shouldn't you flush? Why should you ensure that your tap isn't leaking? The answer lies with the same reasoning that the Power of 10 Sen campaign is built on, and also why it is so successful. Every drop counts, and it all accumulates into something that can be used for something else altogether.

A little something for you to consider :)

It is officially World Water Day tomorrow -- perhaps also the day that you embark on your conservatism? ;)

P.S. : BTW, we got media attention!

Success!

World Water Day - Sandwich Mob

Good day, lovely people!

On the 22nd of this month, it is World Water Day. This initiative was borne out of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and has been held annually ever since. It is a global effort to raise awareness and also encourage the birth of further initiatives to end the water poverty that affects people from (too) many countries, such as Cambodia, Uganda and Ethiopia.

In conjunction with World Water Day, Taylor's UC Environmental Club and 6SOS have teamed up to organize a public rally, mainly aimed at raising awareness among our local community regarding the vitality of sustaining a constant source of clean water.

So, if you live in KL or are in want of doing something for the citizens of the world, i invite you to join us this Saturday for our sandwich mob, held in KL. Details of the event are as follows,

Date : 20th March, 2010
Time : 9AM - 2PM
Location : Central Kuala Lumpur (the exact location will be informed to guests who have RSVP-ed)
(CLICK HERE TO RSVP)

So bring yourself, bring your friends, and gear your spirit in for a time of fun and ado!

Love :)

Taking action

So, i know i'm two whole months late in posting this, but i thought that the way in which Mr. Matthias Gelber phrased the message that he wanted to send was really apt and inspiring.

You don't have to take part in a flash mob, or stand for hours in a protest, to take action. Because, as he put it, it's all about individual action on the ground.

"We have control over our own lives. We have control over our own carbon footprint. What is your carbon footprint? What are you to doing to compensate it, to make it carbon neutral, and even more important to turn yourself into a massive carbon sink? If we were all to be massive carbon sinks, then we don’t need to worry anymore about the political decisions out there.

Turn yourself into a carbon sink.

Compensate your CO2 emissions.

Plant trees.

Lets all turn ourselves into carbon sinks in 2010 and make action happen that way."

In other words, go hug a tree. It's not cool to turn your head and shrug at the issue at climate change anymore. It is the culprit of so many disasters that has affected and taken so many, many lives -- it has now become a humanitarian issue.

Simple steps to reduce YOUR carbon footprint --

• going at 90 km/h instead of 110 km/h while you're on the highway

• using a coffee mug instead of disposable cups which can barely be recycled

• unplugging electronic devices such as TVs and media players, instead of letting it go into standby

• cut down on your electricity bill. Save money AND cut carbon emission

• decrease your meat consumption. Domestic animals belch methane, which retains 23 times more heat than CO2. That's global warming, my friends.
  

If 3.5 million people turn off their TV for an entire day, that's 3 MILLION pounds of carbon pollution cut.

Do you see now what you can do?

"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."

- Howard Zinn

Sedikit demi sedikit, lama menjadi bukit.

How will you go about in taking up the challenge to fight climate change today?

CUP - Click to donate

So a few months back, Nicholas, amazing director of the Power of 10 Sen, told me about their plans for the launch of a new campaign, which naturally got everyone (read: me) excited.

Did you know that in Cambodia, 80 percent of the deaths that occur are attributed to water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dysentery? And the ones most vulnerable to this problem are none other than the children. 11 000 children die every year from diarrhea due to the lack of proper sanitation, and 25% of the deaths of children under 5 years old are due to the consumption of dirty water.

As one of the solutions to this predicament, Communities Unite for Purewater -- CUP -- has been launched. With every hit to their website, corporate sponsors donate 10 cents to the fund that has been set up, and the money is used to provide the people of Cambodia with access to clean water.

The illnesses caused by dirty water cause the children to lose focus on their education and instead take up jobs to earn money after their parents or relatives get affected by the situation. Inadequate education leaves the children with no means by which they can improve themselves, which creates a cycle of poverty.

See how one thing leads to another?

The concept that the Power of 10 Sen is based on is so simple, yet so astoundingly brilliant and effective. A previous campaign launched by the Power of 10 Sen, within the span of a little more than two months in 2009, raised nearly USD 50 000.

All with a contribution of 10 cents.

From each of you.

And this time it is so much easier, because all you have to do is click.

:)

The girl who silenced the world for five minutes.

Gooood morning, everybody!

"This is what one child told us, 'I wish i was rich. And if i were, i would give all the street children food, clothes, medicines, shelter and love and affection.' If a child on the street who has nothing is willing to share, why are we who have everything are still so greedy? I can't stop thinking that these are children my own age; that it makes tremendous difference where you are born; that i could be one of those children; i could be a child starving in Somalia, or a victim of war in the Middle East, or a beggar in India."

This is none other than Severn Cullis-Suzuki, environmental activist, speaker, television host and author, also none other than David Suzuki's daughter -- wowza!!

I highly recommend you watch this powerful video :)

Have a good day, all!

No Plastic Bag Day

Goooood morning! Well, the day has actually stretched on into noon already by now, but since i am still pre-breakfast, let's take it as a good morning.

So i woke up this morning to wonderful news : [click here]

No more plastic bags on Saturdays! Awesome! Go, Selangor government! Now, how's 'bout the other states start following suit? Or perhaps implement this move on more days of the week?

Did you ever notice the little symbols embedded into the plastic products you use? The recycling symbols with the numbers in between them -- the resin identification code.

These are meant to make our lives easier when sorting out the types of plastics for recycling -- but did you know that only a small part of only TWO out of these seven types of plastics are recycled? That would be code 1 (PET) and code 2 (HDPE).

Now, the soft drink/mineral water bottles we use account for code 1. On the other hand, code 2 plastic materials consist of grocery bags, shampoo bottles, etc. But what happens to the other 5 types of plastics? And what of plastic bags (code 4) -- the very ones that we see at Tesco, Giant, or pasar malam? The ones that are supposedly not given out on Saturdays in Selangor anymore?

Well, as most of these recycled plastic have little market value, most industries are now starting to resort to incineration. Yeap, i believe we just took a high leap from recycling to incinerating. Naturally, this means extreme air pollution AND waste of energy.

So what do we do if recycling isn't really an effective solution? Well, the obvious thing to do would be to cut down on the usage of plastic materials in your everyday life. Instead of buying bottled water every time you go out, why not bring your own water instead? Instead of getting new plastic bags every time you hit the supermarket, why not buy one of those hip reusable bags and reuse it?

Simple as that! Think about it. Less plastic used, less plastic needed to be recycled, less pollution, greener environment! Awesome!

Have a wonderful day, all. :)