A farewell lunch, couple of days ago. We dined at an Indian restaurant, next to the Singapore River. Delicious buffet. And we chatted, on the topic of parenthood. With no real experience from my end, I often find the topic far and distant. Maybe my mind was preoccupied with the drafting of this blog entry. That day, I found the conversation on raising children from a father’s perspective interesting. The challenges and hardship involved. And hence, I am dedicating this entry to my parents. For they have provided me an environment, grow and nurture me to what I am today. I turn out OK, I think. So thank you mom and dad.
For a billion years, Planet Earth has provided life form an environment to grow and to evolve. Couple of years ago, I read an interesting article from the magazine Scientific American. It said that Milky Way is a darn harsh environment. Having any possibility of a sustainable life form is close to zero. But here we are, living and breathing in Planet Earth. Miracles.
I too want to save the polar bears and the penguins, Himalaya and the ice cap. Reality is, climate change is happening, right here, right now. Maybe nothing would drastically change in the near decades or centuries. Maybe weather would indeed go chaotic as predicated. Maybe coastal countries and cities would disappear. Maybe for years to come, we would still be arguing on the connection between the way we consume resources and the climate change. Just like today, we still do not agree firmly that smoking kills and get rid of those harmful products for good.
What does switching off the light at 8.30pm local time this Saturday for an hour mean to you? To me, it means more than a message sent to the world leaders that we care. And to that extend – no disrespect to those who are planning to have a good time and party – I find it hard to reconcile taking a drive down to the city center (to join the roadshow) with the action of turning off non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour.
I think this Earth Hour can be a rewarding experience to break our routine. I will be staying at home, with candle lights, maybe play some music with my guitar, maybe play some card games, may be read some Shakespeare with Cynthia, maybe crack our brains on the topic of “10 Things I Hate Love About You” (I probably need more than an hour for the last item!). In the movie “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, the character played by Keanu Reeves said that he was there to save the Earth. By that he meant to eliminate all mankind from this planet. A pretty profound thought, I think.