Saturday, March 22, 2008

Green Consumerism II

In my earlier post, I mentioned how greenhouses cause air pollution. Another blogger, Pandabonium, suggested a few ways to preserve the environment, namely:

Buy local. In season. Organic.


Let’s take a closer look…


Buy local

This is Malaysia, a tropical country. Thou shalt not eat apples, oranges, pears, kiwi fruits etc. as they are not grown locally .

OK, perhaps I can travel to New Zealand if I wish to eat kiwi fruits. But I shall not fly, as air plane pollutes the air. Instead, I must sail with a wave-powered boat.


wave-powered boat


In season

We buy ‘in season’ so that we don’t need to rely on greenhouses. Many years ago my aunt, who lived in the Netherlands, told me that she ate lots of meat in winter when veggies were too expensive. By the time warm days returned, she was completely sick of meat.

Vegetables are out of season in winter, but I can’t imagine not eating them for two or three months. And don’t tell vegetarians to change their lifestyle.

Please help me! I want to save our planet, but are there simpler ways to accomplish this?


P/S To learn more about the wave-powered boat, read Pandabonium's post.

6 comments:

  1. start from not using plastic bags ?
    pack food with your own container rather than those styrofoam boxes ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Boo hoo! Poor baby. As if people in past generations ate out of season foods from the other side of our planet. Come on. Get real.

    So, what do you propose to do to combat climate change? What will you do when fossil fuels are no longer cheap or available at all?

    Or do you plan on being one of the ubber-wealthy to whom such matters are not a problem?

    Sorry if reality serves up some inconveniences to your dreams of year 'round plenty.

    I'm not picking on you Khengsiong - really. I am older than you and have been more spoiled by far. I'm just trying to point out that "the party is over" in terms of cheap fossil fuels which let us live like kings and eat out of season foods from around the world. In the near future, we will have to face reality and make some hard choices.

    Actually, if we hold the right view, the choices won't be so hard, just different from what we are used to.

    If you can offer another path, please enlighten me!

    Thanks for the link.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 迷迭香
    How about fruits?

    pandabonium
    Don't get so angry. Let's agree to disagree.

    Not sure if you are older than me, but I grew up eating apples and oranges, so it is a bit tough to adjust.

    And, as I suggested, you can't tell vegetarians to eat meat in order to save the planet. They will tell you that they are saving the animals.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Come on, be moderate. None of us is activist. We cannot live a totally green life. If yes, you are a freak then. What we can only do are simple things such as saving energy, stop using plastic bag, etc. Don't go too extreme, you just making your own life difficult.

    ReplyDelete
  5. yes, eat local, save the environment. But I'm staying in russia now. They plant apples. Apple trees are everywhere. for rm3 I can get 1kg of apples (about 9 or 11).

    ReplyDelete
  6. jam
    I am trying to be moderate, but there are people who think I haven't done enough.

    littlepolaris
    You live in Russia? That's great. But I am in Malaysia so I should not eat apple?

    ReplyDelete