Tzu Chi Love Charity Fair 2011

heya~

It's 2011 and Tzu Chi is organising a charity fair for 15.1.2011 and 16.1.2011!
The venue is located just right next to Pasir Ris MRT and I'm sure you'd be able to see it when you turn right from the MRT ticket check-out counter.
What I want to say is, I'm seriously impressed with this!

All the stalls (bout 50 stalls!) were sponsored, tables and chairs, whatever you find there, all were fully sponsored! You can find a variety of food (all vegetarian!) from sushi, chicken rice, rojak, lontong, to pastries and ice creams). I would say, many of those were really yummy~

They promoted  vegetarian food as less meat consumption could significantly harm the earth less. So, eating vegetarian is not only healthy, prevent animal cruelty but also being able to contribute positively to the environment! They have pledges around too, and I'm pledging 5-meals of vegetarian a week. In fact, I've been trying to pledge on this lately (bout one month plus ago, hehe) but I'm just trying my very best at the moment)

What amazed me more is with super high technology, those recyclable PET plastic bottles (those drinking water bottles that we buy now and then) were all fully utilised by the Tzu Chi volunteers in Taiwan to save the environment, by turning them into clothes! Can't believe it? Check this out!

Green colour comes from green 7-ups PET bottles

 

coffee colour from coffee

All from:

left (bottle) to right (thread!)

All these products were made from Taiwan's dumps by Tzu Chi volunteers (@ Taiwan based) through the following love and hard work: From those PET bottles that we recklessly dumped into recycle bins without proper cleaning:

1. caps removed 
2. ring removed (ring of the water bottles, which consists of different material/ colour) 
3. labels removed
4. washed properly (many people who have the 'heart' to recycle never wash their bottles prior to dumping those into recycle bins!)
5. sent for recycling

So, the message here is: Please clean your PET bottles before recycling! It saves much of their hardwork in doing these!
 Thank you!!

They also introduced the production of eco-enzymes.
In fact, my mom has been practicing this at home for more than half year and the product can be so multipurpose- from dish washing, floor cleaning, clothes washing, to skin treatment!!
My mom’s friends are also promoting this awareness among housewives to prepare these and dump it into rivers with high pollution.
Can suddenly feel that the love for the earth has increased tremendously eh?? :D

Well, if you’re wondering how to produce eco-enzymes:
This is it:
(very simple)

1. Stock up brown sugar
2. Throw any leftover food in the bottles (any fruits skin, vegetables leaves, etc, usually vegetables and fruits but not meat)
3.  Remember to have sufficient brown sugar to be utilised by the fermenting bacteria to produce eco enzymes
4. After 2 months, yay, you can use these!! They're odourless, non-sticky and trust me, really useful in anything =) 

It's so much better than using detergent which is harmful to our skin, and polluting to the environment too!

So long~

Climate change

Have you realised that the current weather is unpredictable?

The severity of extremes- with floods, earthquakes, storms, heavy precipitations and sudden downpour? Or the extremes in hot weather? When you had sweaty days if you're not in an air-conditioned room?

It's no longer as humid as we've thought of.

Why?
Human factor is the main reason. Humans are selfish. Because of greed, the environment becomes the victim. And this ensued in further sufferings by the later generations.

Air pollution caused by developments have caused global warming, and resulting in climate change. The greenhouse gases such as CO2, NO2, SO2, CO and etc trap dust and heat. This resulted in the slow disbursement of heat back from earth to the atmosphere.

Ozone thinning had inevitably 'helped' in the increase of earth's temperature as more heat is shone directly onto earth. As you know, Malaysia is a tropical country that receives large amount of sunlight. This thus, causing us to receive more heat. And yes, darker skin. Sigh..

In fact, most of the factors that contributes to climate change is due to humans' actions. Natural factors like volcanoes, strong winds and strong downpour are due to natural causes, but human factors do play a role in changing the weather conditions.

What can be done?
The two major steps are mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigation plans are held to save us when some uneventful events takes place- such as epidemics and so on.

As for adaptation, I really wonder on this- how far could we adapt?
With the hot weather, falling sick is like a norm for the society. And it's like getting harder to fight the diseases. A common example would be the influenza. The avian influenza is striking more easily. Sigh.. (again)

The impacts from climate change cover:
1. Increase in diseases- such as dengue. The changes in weather/ precipitation could have resulted in a change of temperature. Unfortunately, it's global warming that I'm talking about. An increase in temperature could have encouraged the growth of pathogen (as it is closer to their optimum temperature).

2. Shortage of water- especially drinking water. Why? As the icebergs melt due to global warming, sea water will rise. This resulted in flooding freshwater reserves and thus, less reserves for us. Please do not forget that there's an increase of human population exponentially.

3. Food security- when diseases strike, when accidents happen, when food shortage takes place, when population is growing so fast.....people could have gone to war just for food and water.

4. Changes in terms of health aspects. The mortality would have increased. The more vulnerable group such as children, sick and elderly people could be affected more easily than ever.

5. Economic impacts- when things are in a haywire, only the more affluent group would survive as they can cope with higher prices of commodities sold. How about the poorer group?

6. Social impacts- Higher costs of livings would eventually lead to a decrease in moral. Perhaps, if there's no restrictions in laws and security, more robberies will take place.

In fact, there are many more other impacts that could have arisen.

Ways to help our beloved Mother Nature? Each of us should practice these, at least these..

1. Use less air-conditioners- if without air-conds you'd feel like dying, please turn on the air-conds to a slightly higher temperature so that it's less cold. 22-26 degree Celsius should be comfortable enough.

2. Produce less affluent- especially plastic-made products. It is less biodegradable (for some that are biodegradable).

3. Save water consumption- for example, please don't wash your cars so often. It's really a huge waste of fresh water!

4. Use less energy- save electricity, petrol and so on.

5. Take less flights- because planes consume lots of fuel and the fuel by-products such as carbon dioxide are released exceptionally high to the atmosphere.

6. Reduce unplanned urbanisations.

7. Produce less pollutants to the environment.

An old adage says that- if a frog is placed into a pot of boiling water, the frog would jump out immediately. However, if the frog is placed in a pot of room temperature water and heated slowly, the frog would die eventually.

We are the frog in a heating pot of water, if we don't act fast to save our beloved earth.

Climate Change International Conference 2008

I was really excited and happy when my boss recommended me to become a rapporteur in my first international conference! It was held from 17th-20th September (well, I was kind of late to post this=P)

Finally, I have a glimpse of how international conferences are held and how my work is supposed to be performed. It was an eye-opening experience to me. The way they organised it, how the people worked together and all.

A truly new experience.

The venue was Crowne Plaza Mutiara, Jalan Sultan ismail. It was really a nice hotel. I really liked the ballroom where the conference was held. Check out these pictures!

Toxicity of plastics

Just found this too..

The peak, which is very dark in colour is the most environmental-damaging substance.

Note:

1. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other halogenated plastics
2. Polyurethane (PU), Polystyrene (PS), Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), Polycarbonate (PC)
3. Polyethylene-terephthalate (PET)
4. Polyolefins (PE,PP, etc.)
5. Biobased Polymers (Bioplastics)

Which is the worst type? PVC plastic (vinyl) is the worst for both our health and for the environment because it is produced using chlorine, and it releases dioxins throughout its lifetime. Dioxin is cancer causing and is one of the most toxic chemical ever produced. It is very sad to say that the EPA suggests that there is no safe level of dioxin exposure. Also, dioxin is linked to cancer.

Some chemicals such as phthalates are added during the production of PVC as it is hard and cannot be utilised. This can hazardously harm our health when these chemicals leak out very easily from PVCs. Therefore, when young, immunocompromised children suck or bite these plastics (ie toys), they are also indirectly ingesting the harmful chemicals.

So, do take care!

Plastics- ReCyCLe please!!

Recently, I bought two Tupperware water tumblers for my brother and me. In fact, I wanted to buy it for such a long time already but I only managed to recently, after agreeing to joining the line. Prefer it because of its Lifetime Warranty. Anyway, my friend (a researcher) had been telling me about this recycling logo under every plastic ware that you can find- trust me, you might want to know what these logos are with numbers in it.

My friend told me that the higher number, the better is the plastic in maintaining the carbon chain during high or low temperature. It's the best if you could buy plastic containers that is at least numbered 5. Do you know why? Well, the higher is the number, the better is the plastic. The chains that make up the plastic at higher numbers will be stronger and thus, can withstand certain temperatures. Even plastic containers at a lower number (ie no 1) cannot be cooled at a very low temperature because the bonds might be too fragile and break, thus releasing some of the chemical substances into the water stored. This would unfortunately, gulped into our body. The hazardous effects? Cancer is the main concern.

I was looking for more information on this when I came across a few articles that mention about the recycling logos. Check this out!

1	PET (polyethylene terephthalate)– often slightly tinted	Soft drinks, water and detergent bottles
2	HDPE (high density polyethylene)	Milk, juice, detergents, bleach, shampoo and motor oil bottles, butter tubs and plastic bags
3	PVC (polyvinyl chloride)	Food wrap, vegetable oil bottles
4	LDPE (low density polyethylene)	Carrier bags and bin liners, coating for milk containers, shrink wrap, dry cleaning bags
5	PP (polypropylene)	Microwaveable meal trays, some bags, most bottle tops, some carpets, some food wrappers, yogurt and margarine tubs, drinking straws
6	PS (polystyrene)	Throwaway cutlery and containers, coffee cups, egg cartons, meat trays, protective packaging for appliances
7	Other (mixed plastics)	No recycling potential (must be landfilled)

Please save our beloved earth and start recycling!