Being spooked by an inconvenient truth

Recently, post global warming conference in Australia, Sydney dimmed its’ skyline for a whole hour.

This is mainly because Australia is going to be one of the countries that will be greatly affected by the climate shift caused by global warming. The upside is the northern hemisphere is going to enjoy better crops, the bad news is that right here in the Asian plain, things are looking dreary.

We have potentials of massive floods, earthquakes of unspeakable magnitude, Tsunamis and more frequent bush fires. The weather will be chaotic with sudden thunder storms and what nots in some part of the continent.

Global warming will also indirectly contribute to the extinction of a few species of animals. This is due to the rapid change of weather and climate. Polar bears could be under the list of extinct species in a few years time. It is already in the endangered species list.

This together with the amount of political tension in the Middle East, nuclear warheads in Pakistan and North Korea, it’s definitely something to be thought about aside from our early morning woman crisis of what to wear to work.

Locally, we are already seeing the signs. The weather nowadays is scorching hot in the afternoon, and raining cats and dogs in the late evening. Johoreans are now a paranoid bunch. If the rain does not stop in 24 hours, people will scramble around to save their belongings, in case a flood occurs in the next 24.

I told off my Dad, yes my DAD for open burning. He has this habit of burning all of the dead leaves on our yard every evening. Everytime he does that, I will come out from the house and nag. I mean, it’s the one thing that a woman does best, no?

“Daddy!! Jangan bakar selalulaaaa… tak bagusla. Be environmental friendly sikitla!”

“Someone will have to get rid of the heap of rubbish here!”

“Dad, these are dauns ok? It will decompose sooner or later la. Besides it gives me smoke smell on my hair la!”

My Dad does not get the whole open burning = global warming = big flood concept. All he knows is that his grandpa’s dad’s dad and so forth have been doing the same thing for generations and we are still here decades after.

But I do. And I am spooked by the whole devastation that it will bring if we don’t do something about it.

I am starting small. For a few years now, we separate our trash, minimize consumption of water and electricity, I quit smoking, I dug out holes to bury all the dead leaves so that my dad will not have the chance to burn it.

You know, little things. Who knows I might even join a conservation program group one day.

Now if only there are at least a hundred of like minded people out there, and multiply that with a few thousands and multiply it with a few more, perhaps in time we could really make a difference.