Modernity is sometimes a step backward. And at the turn of 21st century, we all know Mother Nature is taking beatings like never before.
As nature lovers are supposed to do, today we pay tribute to United Nation’s World Environment Day by making personal pledges on reducing wastages and promoting conservation in our own little ways. If you didn’t know, the world’s environmentalists measure individual country’s use of natural resources against nature’s ability to supply and renew these resources in “global hectares” or gha. A footprint of 2.2 gha (Malaysia’s level in 2003), means we exhaust 2.2 hectares of land annually to feed and absorb each citizen’s waste. That’s a lot. We shouldn’t be proud of this.
OK, if the above sounds too wordy to you, for a layman, gha can be understood like this: An Orang Asli native uses very little plastics bags, buys very little commercialise products, has no aircon at home, never take a ride on fuel consuming vehicles and generally produce very little garbage or waste.
Simple life – People who waste very little are good friends of Mother Nature
Everything they use and waste goes back to nature seamlessly. On the flip side, a person who lives in KL drives to work in fuel guzzlers, eat fastfood that’s creates waste for packaging, use lots of papers and electricity in the office, can never live without aircon, shopping and buying things he/she eventually chuck aside after a few weeks, leave the tap running when shaving, wash cars …. and the bane goes on. This simply means an Orang Asli has a much lower gha than a KLite. Low gha is good – got it?
So, how do Malaysia, our home country, compared to other countries? Here’s are some examples ….
United States 9.6
Canada 7.6
Australia 6.6
United Kingdom 5.6
Japan 4.4
Mexico 2.6
Argentina 2.3
Malaysia 2.2
China 1.6
Thailand 1.4
Indonesia 1.1
Burma / Myanmar 0.9
India 0.8
Cambodia 0.7
What’s your personal promise to Mother Nature ? And we don’t mean today. How about making environment conservation a way of life – everyday.
As nature lovers are supposed to do, today we pay tribute to United Nation’s World Environment Day by making personal pledges on reducing wastages and promoting conservation in our own little ways. If you didn’t know, the world’s environmentalists measure individual country’s use of natural resources against nature’s ability to supply and renew these resources in “global hectares” or gha. A footprint of 2.2 gha (Malaysia’s level in 2003), means we exhaust 2.2 hectares of land annually to feed and absorb each citizen’s waste. That’s a lot. We shouldn’t be proud of this.
OK, if the above sounds too wordy to you, for a layman, gha can be understood like this: An Orang Asli native uses very little plastics bags, buys very little commercialise products, has no aircon at home, never take a ride on fuel consuming vehicles and generally produce very little garbage or waste.Simple life – People who waste very little are good friends of Mother Nature
Everything they use and waste goes back to nature seamlessly. On the flip side, a person who lives in KL drives to work in fuel guzzlers, eat fastfood that’s creates waste for packaging, use lots of papers and electricity in the office, can never live without aircon, shopping and buying things he/she eventually chuck aside after a few weeks, leave the tap running when shaving, wash cars …. and the bane goes on. This simply means an Orang Asli has a much lower gha than a KLite. Low gha is good – got it?
So, how do Malaysia, our home country, compared to other countries? Here’s are some examples ….
United States 9.6
Canada 7.6
Australia 6.6
United Kingdom 5.6
Japan 4.4
Mexico 2.6
Argentina 2.3
Malaysia 2.2
China 1.6
Thailand 1.4
Indonesia 1.1
Burma / Myanmar 0.9
India 0.8
Cambodia 0.7
What’s your personal promise to Mother Nature ? And we don’t mean today. How about making environment conservation a way of life – everyday.
