Wednesday 24 February 2010

Environment: Earth Hour 2010 (add-ons)


I have been very busy lately and most of my better articles are still pending for more researches, so I guess you guys have to be a little patient.

In my last entry, I said I will support the upcoming Earth Hour event and I suggested that it is important to save electricity. By doing so, we can lower the carbon dioxide emission worldwide in that hour.

But hey, there is only one Earth Hour a year, and there are still (365 days x 24 hours - 1 hour) hours of time at which we are using electricity, so it is actually a very small part of contribution to our beautiful planet, but it is the awareness and the education behind this event that count most in your participation.

If you are aware of the latest news reports, you should have heard of the "natural" disasters happened in  other parts of the world. Here I offer you a few news reports:

Portugal rushes aid to Madeira after deadly floods
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526679.stm?ls

Thousands Flee Indonesia Floods
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8527149.stm

El NiƱo hits 14 Philippines provinces
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/244883/el-ni-o-hits-14-provinces

Al Gore said in his movie, An Inconvenience Truth, that "The ice has a story to tell", now "Floods and heat waves also have a story to tell".

All these cases happened in less than a week, and let's not forget the Polar Ice Caps are also melting by the second. There have been numerous disputes over how fast the ice caps are melting and how soon the low sea level countries will be flooded; some say faster, some say slower. To me, it never matters how fast or how soon, it is happening! Why waste time on arguing who has the most accurate calculation? Nobody will know for sure until the day all the ice has melted. And by then, who will still care about whose claim is right and whose claim is wrong? There will be no turning back by then and so we shouldn't give ourselves hope that the Earth will only be critically sick many decades later. Treat the entire situation as serious as we all can and do whatever it takes to cure the planet as urgent as possible.

The Earth is already sick and it will die if we don't try to heal her.

Listen to Michael Jackson's Earth Song MTV again to feel the urge if you must.

Vocabulary:
dispute -- an argument or disagreement, especially an official one between, for example, workers and employers or two countries with a common border


Resources:
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2010/02/environment-earth-hour-2010.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8526679.stm?ls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8527149.stm
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/244883/el-ni-o-hits-14-provinces
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/03/movie-inconvenient-truth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_global_warming
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2009/11/movie-song-this-is-it.html

Message: Please Let Me Know

Hey guys!

While you are reading my entries and watching videos which are linked from this blog, if you happen to find any dead links, please let me know, so that I can update them and keep the entries meaningful no matter when you read it.

You can let me know by sending me email or leaving comments.

Thanks a million!

(Thank Timothy for letting me know about the song links I put up. They are fixed now.)

Cheers!
Locky