The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.
In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".
They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised.
The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity.
The panel was convened by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), and brought together experts from different disciplines, including coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and fisheries scientists.
Its report will be formally released later this week.
"The findings are shocking," said Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director and professor of conservation biology at Oxford University.
"As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the oceans, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised.
"We've sat in one forum and spoken to each other about what we're seeing, and we've ended up with a picture showing that almost right across the board we're seeing changes that are happening faster than we'd thought, or in ways that we didn't expect to see for hundreds of years."
These "accelerated" changes include melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea level rise, and release of methane trapped in the sea bed.
Fast changes
"The rate of change is vastly exceeding what we were expecting even a couple of years ago," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a coral specialist from the University of Queensland in Australia.
Some species are already fished way beyond their limits - and may also be affected by other threats "So if you look at almost everything, whether it's fisheries in temperate zones or coral reefs or Arctic sea ice, all of this is undergoing changes, but at a much faster rate than we had thought."
But more worrying than this, the team noted, are the ways in which different issues act synergistically to increase threats to marine life.
Some pollutants, for example, stick to the surfaces of tiny plastic particles that are now found in the ocean bed.
This increases the amounts of these pollutants that are consumed by bottom-feeding fish.
Plastic particles also assist the transport of algae from place to place, increasing the occurrence of toxic algal blooms - which are also caused by the influx of nutrient-rich pollution from agricultural land.
In a wider sense, ocean acidification, warming, local pollution and overfishing are acting together to increase the threat to coral reefs - so much so that three-quarters of the world's reefs are at risk of severe decline.
Life on Earth has gone through five "mass extinction events" caused by events such as asteroid impacts; and it is often said that humanity's combined impact is causing a sixth such event.
The IPSO report concludes that it is too early to say definitively.
But the trends are such that it is likely to happen, they say - and far faster than any of the previous five.
"What we're seeing at the moment is unprecedented in the fossil record - the environmental changes are much more rapid," Professor Rogers told BBC News.
"We've still got most of the world's biodiversity, but the actual rate of extinction is much higher [than in past events] - and what we face is certainly a globally significant extinction event."
The report also notes that previous mass extinction events have been associated with trends being observed now - disturbances of the carbon cycle, and acidification and hypoxia (depletion of oxygen) of seawater.
Levels of CO2 being absorbed by the oceans are already far greater than during the great extinction of marine species 55 million years ago (during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum), it concludes.
Blue planet
The report's conclusions will be presented at UN headquarters in New York this week, when government delegates begin discussions on reforming governance of the oceans.
In the long run, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut to conserve ocean life, the report concludes IPSO's immediate recommendations include:
- stopping exploitative fishing now, with special emphasis on the high seas where currently there is little effective regulation
- mapping and then reducing the input of pollutants including plastics, agricultural fertilisers and human waste
- making sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
- Carbon dioxide levels are now so high, it says, that ways of pulling the gas out of the atmosphere need to be researched urgently - but not using techniques, such as iron fertilisation, that lead to more CO2 entering the oceans.
"We have to bring down CO2 emissions to zero within about 20 years," Professor Hoegh-Guldberg told BBC News.
"If we don't do that, we're going to see steady acidification of the seas, heat events that are wiping out things like kelp forests and coral reefs, and we'll see a very different ocean."
Another of the report's authors, Dan Laffoley, marine chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas and an adviser to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), admitted the challenges were vast.
"But unlike previous generations, we know what now needs to happen," he said.
"The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now."
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
How air-conditioning is baking our world
US homes use as much electricity for air conditioning as the whole of Africa, claims a new book by Stan Cox.
When you think of the causes of global warming, you may picture an SUV before you picture a central AC unit. But almost 20 percent of electricity consumption in U.S. homes goes to AC -- that's as much electricity as the entire continent of Africa uses for all purposes. So says Stab Coxin his new book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer).
Cox, a scientist and agricultural researcher who lives in Salina, Kansas, doesn't paint AC as the bogeyman. Rather, he makes the point that our world has developed in many unsustainable directions overall, and air-conditioning has been a crucial part of that development. He also argues that making air-conditioners and other appliances more energ efficient isn't going to get us out of this mess. He was interviewed last week about his new book. Open a window, undo a button, and enjoy ...
Q. Why did you write a book on air-conditioning?
A. In the past half-century, a number of big, energy-guzzling technologies have really changed our lives: automobiles, computers, television, jet aircraft. All that time, air-conditioning has been humming away in the background, like a character actor you see in a whole bunch of movies. It's never the star, but it always seems to be there moving the plot along.
When I looked at the doubling in the amount of electricity used for air conditioning homes in this country just since the mid-90s, I thought, we really need to address this, because it is a big contributor to greenhouse-gas release and it's going to increase the likelihood that we're going to have longer, more intense heat waves and hotter summers in the future, and we're going to have to be running the air-conditioning even more.
Q. That seemed to be a theme throughout the book -- that the use of air-conditioning leads to a cycle where it needs to be used more.
A. Yes, the biggest example of that is probably global warming. But there are a lot of ways in which air-conditioning creates need for itself, including by eroding our heat tolerance. Once we've built office buildings and commercial buildings on the assumption of air-conditioning, then we pretty much have to use it. We've created a lot of space that's almost uninhabitable without it. In many buildings, the windows don't open at all anymore.
In the book, I put a lot of emphasis on what's known as the adaptive model of comfort. It's based on surveys of people who are working at different temperatures and asked if they're comfortable. People can psychologically adjust to buildings that are cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. The comment I've heard most since the book came out is from people who work in offices and complain that their offices are too cold in the summer, and they have to take sweaters or use space heaters, wasting even more energy. Without eroding people's working conditions or quality of life at all, there could be a big savings there.
Q. I thought it was interesting that you linked AC to obesity, in the sense that people are indoors more often and their bodies don't have to work to adjust to the temperature changes during the year.
A. Right, that's one of the hypotheses that a group of medical researchers came up with to explain the rise in obesity -- the slower burning of energy by the body in the comfort range, where it doesn't have to work to either shed heat or generate heat (in addition to the normal explanations that people are eating more and exercising less). Another way AC could be affecting obesity is that people tend to eat more when in cooler conditions. And also, by making the indoors more attractive in the summertime, we've made it less likely that people are going to be outdoors where we're more physically active.
The book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer), is available on Amazon.cpm
When you think of the causes of global warming, you may picture an SUV before you picture a central AC unit. But almost 20 percent of electricity consumption in U.S. homes goes to AC -- that's as much electricity as the entire continent of Africa uses for all purposes. So says Stab Coxin his new book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer).
Cox, a scientist and agricultural researcher who lives in Salina, Kansas, doesn't paint AC as the bogeyman. Rather, he makes the point that our world has developed in many unsustainable directions overall, and air-conditioning has been a crucial part of that development. He also argues that making air-conditioners and other appliances more energ efficient isn't going to get us out of this mess. He was interviewed last week about his new book. Open a window, undo a button, and enjoy ...
Q. Why did you write a book on air-conditioning?
A. In the past half-century, a number of big, energy-guzzling technologies have really changed our lives: automobiles, computers, television, jet aircraft. All that time, air-conditioning has been humming away in the background, like a character actor you see in a whole bunch of movies. It's never the star, but it always seems to be there moving the plot along.
When I looked at the doubling in the amount of electricity used for air conditioning homes in this country just since the mid-90s, I thought, we really need to address this, because it is a big contributor to greenhouse-gas release and it's going to increase the likelihood that we're going to have longer, more intense heat waves and hotter summers in the future, and we're going to have to be running the air-conditioning even more.
Q. That seemed to be a theme throughout the book -- that the use of air-conditioning leads to a cycle where it needs to be used more.
A. Yes, the biggest example of that is probably global warming. But there are a lot of ways in which air-conditioning creates need for itself, including by eroding our heat tolerance. Once we've built office buildings and commercial buildings on the assumption of air-conditioning, then we pretty much have to use it. We've created a lot of space that's almost uninhabitable without it. In many buildings, the windows don't open at all anymore.
In the book, I put a lot of emphasis on what's known as the adaptive model of comfort. It's based on surveys of people who are working at different temperatures and asked if they're comfortable. People can psychologically adjust to buildings that are cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer. The comment I've heard most since the book came out is from people who work in offices and complain that their offices are too cold in the summer, and they have to take sweaters or use space heaters, wasting even more energy. Without eroding people's working conditions or quality of life at all, there could be a big savings there.
Q. I thought it was interesting that you linked AC to obesity, in the sense that people are indoors more often and their bodies don't have to work to adjust to the temperature changes during the year.
A. Right, that's one of the hypotheses that a group of medical researchers came up with to explain the rise in obesity -- the slower burning of energy by the body in the comfort range, where it doesn't have to work to either shed heat or generate heat (in addition to the normal explanations that people are eating more and exercising less). Another way AC could be affecting obesity is that people tend to eat more when in cooler conditions. And also, by making the indoors more attractive in the summertime, we've made it less likely that people are going to be outdoors where we're more physically active.
The book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer), is available on Amazon.cpm
Monday, July 12, 2010
Fight Climate Change with Diet Change
Global warming is one of the world's greatest challenges at the moment and according to scientists one of the most effective ways to fight global warming is to become vegetarian.
A UN report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined.Greenhouse gases cause global warming, which studies show will increasingly lead to catastrophic disasters-like droughts, floods, hurricanes, rising sea levels, and disease outbreaks - unless we drastically reduce the amounts emitted into the atmosphere.
The official handbook for the Live Earth concerts says that "refusing meat"
is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Studies have shown that if every American replaced one meal of chicken per week with vegetarian foods, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off the roads. According to The University of Chicago that becoming a vegetarian is 50% more effective than switching to a hybrid car in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Did you know that eating half a kilo of meat emits just as much greenhouse gas as driving an SUV for 65 kilometers??
We Can Help Stop Global Warming Today
The most effective way to fight the global warming crisis is to stop eating meat, eggs, and dairy products. However for a meat lover like myself becoming a vegetarian might be a big task. So for now I will incorporate 2 meat free days pr week in my lifestyle. And well, if we all do that it will have a huge impact on our environment and the future of our Mother Earth.
Anyone want to join me on my quest to save the planet??
A UN report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined.Greenhouse gases cause global warming, which studies show will increasingly lead to catastrophic disasters-like droughts, floods, hurricanes, rising sea levels, and disease outbreaks - unless we drastically reduce the amounts emitted into the atmosphere.
The official handbook for the Live Earth concerts says that "refusing meat" is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Studies have shown that if every American replaced one meal of chicken per week with vegetarian foods, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off the roads. According to The University of Chicago that becoming a vegetarian is 50% more effective than switching to a hybrid car in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Did you know that eating half a kilo of meat emits just as much greenhouse gas as driving an SUV for 65 kilometers??
We Can Help Stop Global Warming Today
The most effective way to fight the global warming crisis is to stop eating meat, eggs, and dairy products. However for a meat lover like myself becoming a vegetarian might be a big task. So for now I will incorporate 2 meat free days pr week in my lifestyle. And well, if we all do that it will have a huge impact on our environment and the future of our Mother Earth.
Anyone want to join me on my quest to save the planet??
Sunday, May 9, 2010
I want this!
With the onset of summer in Jammu (India), earthen pots are becoming more and more popular.
The pots are widely used by the poor but this year, however, it has been observed that even the middle- class and the elite are readily buying these environment-friendly refrigerators. Only the poor would use earthen pots to cool water but now even the middle class is adapting this trend. Maybe it's because of health concerns and rising number of diseases, or due to recommendations from doctors.
The pots not only keep the water cool but do so in an environment-friendly way. It is also believed that drinking water stored in earthen pots is also much healthier. After one year or one season of use, the earthen pot can be broken and it can be mixed with earth again, which means it is reusable. And if we limit the use of refrigerants like neon and all, they all cause depletion of ozone layer which contributes to global warming. So using these pots would decrease global warming. The water stored in a clay pot has a refreshing flavor and gets cooled to as low as 14-15 degrees Celsius within a few hours naturally. Nice.
Tip of the day: Switch to a corded phone. You'll save energy cos you won't need to recharge the corded phone. Yes, it is not cool nor modern but it will do good for the Earth even if it is in a small way.
The pots are widely used by the poor but this year, however, it has been observed that even the middle- class and the elite are readily buying these environment-friendly refrigerators. Only the poor would use earthen pots to cool water but now even the middle class is adapting this trend. Maybe it's because of health concerns and rising number of diseases, or due to recommendations from doctors.The pots not only keep the water cool but do so in an environment-friendly way. It is also believed that drinking water stored in earthen pots is also much healthier. After one year or one season of use, the earthen pot can be broken and it can be mixed with earth again, which means it is reusable. And if we limit the use of refrigerants like neon and all, they all cause depletion of ozone layer which contributes to global warming. So using these pots would decrease global warming. The water stored in a clay pot has a refreshing flavor and gets cooled to as low as 14-15 degrees Celsius within a few hours naturally. Nice.
Tip of the day: Switch to a corded phone. You'll save energy cos you won't need to recharge the corded phone. Yes, it is not cool nor modern but it will do good for the Earth even if it is in a small way.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Still arguing over Climate Change
Why is it so hard for people to accept that we humans are to be blamed for the mess we've caused? Isn't it typical of us human to not accept blame or push it to someone else?
So there's a new article that came out today stating that human impact on the climate change is more clearer. The Met, Britain's national weather service, says a new review of 110 research papers written and researched during the last 3 years shows "evidence has strengthened for human influence on climate" according to a BBC news report.
What makes the new review by the Met more credible, according to its authors, is the broad view it takes of the world's weather and it's eco-systems. A separate research has shown that Methane is possibly a bigger threat to the Earth's delicate environment than previously thought. Methane, which is a potent global warming gas, is bubbling out of the Arctic ice faster than expected, thanks to a warming climate. This was reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science. "The amount of methane coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world's oceans" said Natalie Shakhova, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center and co-author.
Concerns about global warming have centered on rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but scientists note that methane can be 30 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. But this DOES NOT mean that we can use this to our advantage and continue our increase in carbon dioxide ok people! Maybe the skeptics should sit in a room full of smog and see whether they can last in there and come out feeling good..
Tip of the day: Instead of using a treadmill, go out and jog in the park. Rather than breathing in used and recycled air in the gym, enjoy the air, which is cleaned up naturally by the plants, in the park :) You'll save as well :)
So there's a new article that came out today stating that human impact on the climate change is more clearer. The Met, Britain's national weather service, says a new review of 110 research papers written and researched during the last 3 years shows "evidence has strengthened for human influence on climate" according to a BBC news report.
What makes the new review by the Met more credible, according to its authors, is the broad view it takes of the world's weather and it's eco-systems. A separate research has shown that Methane is possibly a bigger threat to the Earth's delicate environment than previously thought. Methane, which is a potent global warming gas, is bubbling out of the Arctic ice faster than expected, thanks to a warming climate. This was reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science. "The amount of methane coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world's oceans" said Natalie Shakhova, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center and co-author.Concerns about global warming have centered on rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but scientists note that methane can be 30 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. But this DOES NOT mean that we can use this to our advantage and continue our increase in carbon dioxide ok people! Maybe the skeptics should sit in a room full of smog and see whether they can last in there and come out feeling good..
Tip of the day: Instead of using a treadmill, go out and jog in the park. Rather than breathing in used and recycled air in the gym, enjoy the air, which is cleaned up naturally by the plants, in the park :) You'll save as well :)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
I found this article that might help non-believers change their minds
IT IS an ''increasingly remote possibility'' that human activity is not the main cause of climate change, concludes a review of more than 100 scientific studies that have tracked observed changes in the Earth's climate system.
The research will strengthen the case for human-induced climate change against the viewpoints of sceptics who argue the observed changes in the Earth's climate can largely be explained by natural variability.
Climate scientists and the UN's climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have come under intense pressure in recent months after the panel was forced to admit it had made two errors in its fourth assessment report, published in 2007. Asked whether his study was specifically scheduled as a fightback, Peter Stott, who led the review for Britain's Meteorological Office, said the paper was drafted a year ago.
But he added: "I hope people will look at that evidence and make up their minds." Scientists matched computer models of possible causes of climate change, both human-led and otherwise, to measured changes in factors such as air and sea temperature, Arctic sea ice cover and global rainfall patterns. This technique, called optimal detection, showed clear fingerprints of human-induced global warming, Dr Stott said. The review, published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, finds the natural causes of climate variation, including changing energy output from the sun and volcanic eruptions, cannot alone explain the observed changes.
''There hasn't been an increase in solar output for the last 50 years and solar output would not have caused the cooling of the higher atmosphere and the warming of the lower atmosphere we have seen,'' the review said.
Evidence that the climate system is changing goes beyond measured air temperatures, with much in the fresh body of facts relating to the oceans. ''Over 80 per cent of the heat that's trapped in the climate system as a result of the greenhouse gases is exported into the ocean and we can see that happening,'' Dr Stott said.
Arctic sea ice is also retreating: the summer minimum of sea ice is declining at a rate of 600,000 square kilometres a decade. Rainfall is increasing in the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere and in large parts of the southern hemisphere, while in the tropics and sub-tropics there are decreases. ''The already wet regions are getting wetter and the dry regions are getting drier,'' Dr Stott said.
If the observed climate change were entirely due to solar activity, the Earth's atmosphere would have warmed more evenly, and the troposphere and stratosphere would have been affected.
~ GUARDIAN
Tip of the Day: For mums :) Reuse the jar of your baby food. You can use it to store your self-made pureed fruits for your baby :)
The research will strengthen the case for human-induced climate change against the viewpoints of sceptics who argue the observed changes in the Earth's climate can largely be explained by natural variability.
Climate scientists and the UN's climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have come under intense pressure in recent months after the panel was forced to admit it had made two errors in its fourth assessment report, published in 2007. Asked whether his study was specifically scheduled as a fightback, Peter Stott, who led the review for Britain's Meteorological Office, said the paper was drafted a year ago.But he added: "I hope people will look at that evidence and make up their minds." Scientists matched computer models of possible causes of climate change, both human-led and otherwise, to measured changes in factors such as air and sea temperature, Arctic sea ice cover and global rainfall patterns. This technique, called optimal detection, showed clear fingerprints of human-induced global warming, Dr Stott said. The review, published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, finds the natural causes of climate variation, including changing energy output from the sun and volcanic eruptions, cannot alone explain the observed changes.
''There hasn't been an increase in solar output for the last 50 years and solar output would not have caused the cooling of the higher atmosphere and the warming of the lower atmosphere we have seen,'' the review said.
Evidence that the climate system is changing goes beyond measured air temperatures, with much in the fresh body of facts relating to the oceans. ''Over 80 per cent of the heat that's trapped in the climate system as a result of the greenhouse gases is exported into the ocean and we can see that happening,'' Dr Stott said.
Arctic sea ice is also retreating: the summer minimum of sea ice is declining at a rate of 600,000 square kilometres a decade. Rainfall is increasing in the higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere and in large parts of the southern hemisphere, while in the tropics and sub-tropics there are decreases. ''The already wet regions are getting wetter and the dry regions are getting drier,'' Dr Stott said.
If the observed climate change were entirely due to solar activity, the Earth's atmosphere would have warmed more evenly, and the troposphere and stratosphere would have been affected.
~ GUARDIAN
Tip of the Day: For mums :) Reuse the jar of your baby food. You can use it to store your self-made pureed fruits for your baby :)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Don't you feel it or see it?
I read an article online that a survey done on 1001 adults (in the U.K) showed people who are sceptical on the climate change is on the rise.
25% of the people who took part in the poll said that they did not believe that climate change is happening, that is an increase of 10%. 75% said that climate change was happening, a drop from 83%, and 26% of those said that they believe its happening and is mainly caused by us human beings. More people are sceptical about man's contribution to climate change than firm believers. One in three of the 75% even say that living in warming world has been exaggerated.
Has the truth really been stretched? Has Mother Nature not given us enough signs that we are slowly causing her death? Do you think that what we've been doing on Earth, which is all for our own convenience, a natural process? As they say, Ignorance Is Bliss.
Tip of the Day: I want a nice, healthy environment for my son and grandkids (if ever and still a long long way to go). Don't you?
Maybe we should all sit back and think whether we humans are causing the death of the world or not..
25% of the people who took part in the poll said that they did not believe that climate change is happening, that is an increase of 10%. 75% said that climate change was happening, a drop from 83%, and 26% of those said that they believe its happening and is mainly caused by us human beings. More people are sceptical about man's contribution to climate change than firm believers. One in three of the 75% even say that living in warming world has been exaggerated.
Has the truth really been stretched? Has Mother Nature not given us enough signs that we are slowly causing her death? Do you think that what we've been doing on Earth, which is all for our own convenience, a natural process? As they say, Ignorance Is Bliss.Tip of the Day: I want a nice, healthy environment for my son and grandkids (if ever and still a long long way to go). Don't you?
Maybe we should all sit back and think whether we humans are causing the death of the world or not..
Friday, February 26, 2010
Feel the Wrath of El Nino!!!
I woke up sweating again. It's been super hot these past few days and I read an article on CNA that our dearest friend El Nino is back with a vengeance.
Its the hottest February we had so far and also the driest. (Scientists are still discussing on whether global warming affects El Nino. In my opinion, if the world's temperature is rising, El Nino would be harsher. It just makes sense to me. Our lalangs, grass and vegetations didn't manage to escape the clutches of El Nino as well and are sporadically burning away. I know, you might say "switch on the air-con lah", but unfortunately I can't sleep in an air-conditioned room as I'll wake up with an irritated nose and plus I love the soothing noise of my old fan and the movement of the air created by my old trusty fan puts me to la la land within minutes :)
Thinking about it makes me sleepy on this hot hot day... It was also reported that the dry spell is causing a record water consumption. Around 590 Olympic-sized pool is being consumed daily on average, which is 7 percent more than last February and plus that's a huge amount of water! Its the driest month and yet we are consuming much more water than we should!
I do understand that people want to take an extra shower or two in this heat but maybe we can keep it short and simple. Switch on the tap, rinse yourself and get out. Or better, hit the local swimming pool and have a swim in the cooling water. You'll save water and workout as well! And instead of turning up the air-con throughout the night, maybe you can switch on the air-con and cool down the room first before heading to bed then switch it off and turn on the fan. Or best of all, go to the beach and enjoy the sun and get a tan (I love the sun and the beach!). Frolick in the water or play a game of beach volley ball with your friends and make new friends!
Yes, sometimes I can't stand this heat but hey, on the brighterside of things, you can do much more when it's sunny than in the rain.
Tip of the Day: Please read the above for the tips of the day :)
Its the hottest February we had so far and also the driest. (Scientists are still discussing on whether global warming affects El Nino. In my opinion, if the world's temperature is rising, El Nino would be harsher. It just makes sense to me. Our lalangs, grass and vegetations didn't manage to escape the clutches of El Nino as well and are sporadically burning away. I know, you might say "switch on the air-con lah", but unfortunately I can't sleep in an air-conditioned room as I'll wake up with an irritated nose and plus I love the soothing noise of my old fan and the movement of the air created by my old trusty fan puts me to la la land within minutes :)Thinking about it makes me sleepy on this hot hot day... It was also reported that the dry spell is causing a record water consumption. Around 590 Olympic-sized pool is being consumed daily on average, which is 7 percent more than last February and plus that's a huge amount of water! Its the driest month and yet we are consuming much more water than we should!
I do understand that people want to take an extra shower or two in this heat but maybe we can keep it short and simple. Switch on the tap, rinse yourself and get out. Or better, hit the local swimming pool and have a swim in the cooling water. You'll save water and workout as well! And instead of turning up the air-con throughout the night, maybe you can switch on the air-con and cool down the room first before heading to bed then switch it off and turn on the fan. Or best of all, go to the beach and enjoy the sun and get a tan (I love the sun and the beach!). Frolick in the water or play a game of beach volley ball with your friends and make new friends!
Yes, sometimes I can't stand this heat but hey, on the brighterside of things, you can do much more when it's sunny than in the rain.
Tip of the Day: Please read the above for the tips of the day :)
Monday, February 22, 2010
A Gentle Green Reminder....
Hello hello....I hope you all had a good weekend and enjoying your Monday:) No more 'Monday Blues' - but instead let's have 'Monday Greens'!
It's not about being "in" or a phase in life but it has to be instilled in our every day life. Not only will it benefit your health and everyone around you, but it will benefit Mother Earth and all living, breathing species which we share our planet with. A little bit of effort from each of us will go a long way. Even if our actions have been obvious (all the extreme weather conditions due to global warming), we are still taking things for granted and moving at a sloth's pace (or a snail, whichever is slower, or maybe a turtle)to change. We should all take a pause from our busy schedule and think about ways which you and I can help heal Mother Earth before its too late and the damage done is irreversible. So having said that, I will leave tips of the day that will help you achieve a greener life.
Today's Green TIP Of The Day: Walk or cycle and take the public transport instead of driving :) Its easy and its free (except for the public transport which does not cost much)!
It's not about being "in" or a phase in life but it has to be instilled in our every day life. Not only will it benefit your health and everyone around you, but it will benefit Mother Earth and all living, breathing species which we share our planet with. A little bit of effort from each of us will go a long way. Even if our actions have been obvious (all the extreme weather conditions due to global warming), we are still taking things for granted and moving at a sloth's pace (or a snail, whichever is slower, or maybe a turtle)to change. We should all take a pause from our busy schedule and think about ways which you and I can help heal Mother Earth before its too late and the damage done is irreversible. So having said that, I will leave tips of the day that will help you achieve a greener life.
Today's Green TIP Of The Day: Walk or cycle and take the public transport instead of driving :) Its easy and its free (except for the public transport which does not cost much)!
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