I’ve just watched Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient truth”. The facts pricks my conscience from within so painfully that I can no longer feign ignorance and neglect the upcoming consequences that we will face in the next few decades to come.

Take a look at the problem of rising sea levels. Melting icecaps, disappearing glaciers, loss of habitable land, increase in refugees. Where do they go? What should we do? Maybe in years to come, all in sight would be buried under water. Well, you could be worried, but do nothing. Sit and wait for the government to put in place policies. But do remember that those policies can only serve to nullify the effects caused by environmental problems. Do they eliminate the root of the problem? No, they don’t. In years to come, Singapore, a low lying country, could face serious problems posed by the rising sea levels. We should not take for granted that all we have is still safe.

All we are doing now, all these air pollution that causes global warming, will validate all the security we enjoy now. Instead of placing attention and focusing on political matters, we should put our sights on environmental issues that will eventually destroy fundamentally all life on earth. The dangers that will surface in time to come will cause planetary effects. Take up individual responsibility now.

We are in the era of consequences. Today, we get the direct implications of human actions throughout the many generations on the environment. We cannot shake off the responsibility because we are to blame too. If we do not take action, who will? “Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problems.” We already know everything we need to know to effectively address the problem of global warming. It just takes the willingness to cooperate, be it individually, organisationally, or nationally. Electricity end-use efficiency, other end-use efficiency, passenger vehicle efficiency, other transport efficiency, renewable(s), CCS & supply efficiency. All these, mentioned by Al Gore, can help reduce the carbon emissions globally. It just takes, political will, for all these to happen and for a reversible change in the environmental situation, from now back to the 1970s. Everyone is a cause of global warming and it only takes the will to change, to put an end to this. Let us all wake up and do something to protect our only home, to change our way of living. The climate crisis CAN be solved. It only can, if you and I put our hearts into making it happen.

J.