Thoughts on Jiuzhaigou Trip- Environment

The most frequently asked questions from my friends are
1. How much did I spend?
2, What is the best time for going to Jiuzhaigou?

How much I spent: very expensive for a China trip, it's enough for going to Japan!

Best time: Everybody knows the best time for Jiuzhaigou is when the red leaves appear. However, it's usually also the most crowded time as well! I chose to go this year because I thought there might be less people after the earthquake.



According to my research prior to the trip, the best time should be mid October to late Oct for the red leaves. (Remember the worst time is early Oct, coz there're way too many people because of the National Day holidays.) HOWEVER, this year the leaves did not turn more red/yellow until after 22th. And I asked the local people while I was there (27-28 Oct), the colour of the leaves would be even beautiful when there was frost.

The best time is NOT mid-late Oct, it should be early Nov, this year at least.

November is NOT high season, so everything is like half priced!! I should have gone in November... =P

Why was the appearance of red leaves delayed? Global warming again?

I was watching the TV program on Iceland yesterday, how the scenic national parks in Iceland stayed pretty much like its original state, all the pavements were made with natural materials which can blend with the environment, and there are no cable cars, tourists have to walk to see everything. Which reminds me of what I see in the Jiuzhaigou trip.

Cable car at Huanglong


Pavement at Jiuzhaigou


We need to work hard to protect our environment and try to keep it the way God created it.

Mimosa

One thing we see less and less in Hong Kong, apart from the old buildings (as from my previous post), is -- MIMOSA!

I don't know if you feel the same way, when I was a kid, I used to see mimosa everywhere in parks, along the pavement, even in urban areas! My grandmother used to bring me to a park near my kindergarten quite often after school, and I could find mimosa along the way.

Some people told me mimosa can only survive in places with air quality that is not bad. I guess that is why I don't see mimosa all that much now.



I thought this wasn't mimosa when I first saw it, I was fooled too many times by plants that looked like mimosa but wasn't, but it really was, and there were lots of them nearby!!

This picture was taken in Yuen Long last month, just wondering when mimosa will disappear from the New Territories as well...

Carbon offset

I'm surprised that so many people has never heard of carbon offset or has never thought about the damage we did when we flew with planes.

Whatever you do to save the planet, with one long haul flight, the amount of damage you did could be much more than what you did to save it in a year,

Last time, when I went to Australia, I was too busy (in studying) to search for carbon offset options, even though I wanted to do it.

Some of the airlines allows you to buy carbon offsets, that is to give money to do things like plant more trees/support renewable energy to compensate for the carbon dioxide you produced with whatever you did, like flying, or driving.

Examples can be found here.

I have tried searching for a similar organisation in Hong Kong, but couldn't find one. hmm... maybe I should just try to buy carbon offset from overseas companies/organisations, or maybe I should just donate more money to environmental organisations??

(From Carbon Catalog, I can only find one in Israel and one in Japan in the whole Asia!!!)

And I started searching for environmental organisations in Hong Kong, this is the most comprehensive list I found.

WWF is using too much money for administration, more than 20% on admin, membership management, promotion, etc!!!

Greenpeace, is it too aggressive at times? A bit like LSD on environment instead of politics?

The others, I don't really care much about... hmm... Anyone with any good suggestions?

(btw, you can calculate your carbon footprint here.)

Legco Election- Vote Green??

My previous post on Legco election is partly triggered by a survey of the candidates on their view on homosexuality. Frankly, I am not that much concerned about homosexuality =P.

Actually Greenpeace has done a survey on the views of the candidates on environmental protection.

The results are here. (Chinese only)

hmm... the candidates I want to vote did not respond... hmm...

The Green

I just watched this program on ATV World. Extremely good, highly recommended!!

Big Ideas for a Small Planet

As the name suggested, it's about environmental protection. The episode I watched is about people who used art to protect the environment, I remember there are photographer, architect, designer.

The photographer took pics in the Arctic Circle, places that used to have no trees/shrubs, now all these willows started to grow because of global warming! And they have used up all the water in the lakes, and so the lakes disappeared and no more fish for the local people!! Even coffin buried underground were exposed as ice melted!!!

Legco Election

Legco election will be held next Sunday. This year's election is special in a way that it is so near the Beijing Olympics. I am the kind of person who is used to watching most of the debates, reading the pamphlets, gathering some information before I cast my vote. This year, it is difficult.

Most of the people I know are going to vote for the Civic Party. I am no exception. (I still haven't made my decision on my functional constituency vote yet.)

Most of the candidates concentrated on universal suffrage and poverty in the debates. Poverty is a very important issue, I agree. Universal suffrage is also important.

What about the environment? Some of them do have a few suggestions like stop building "barrier buildings" (not sure of the term in English).

Even if I wanna vote green, I don't know how to choose.

WWF- Climateer 3600

In light of the government’s giving out $3,600 electricity subsidy to all households starting September, WWF invites the Hong Kong public to practise energy efficiency and , save as much electricity as they can during the $3600 government electricity subsidy period. The biggest savers can win great low carbon prizes!

The top ten electricity savers of the six categories (60 in total) will be awarded $4000 worth of energy efficient electrical applianices coupons.

The top winner of the six categories will also be awarded $8,500 to $16,500 (depending on the competition category) worth of Megaman lighting products and consultation services.

In addition, two energy efficient HP laptops and two Epson printers will be given away during the competition period. Stay tuned to www.climateers.org for updates.

I have already joined la, what are you waiting for? Start to protect the environment now, and do NOT use more electricity just because it's free!!!

McDonald's Breakfast and my eeePC

I chose Egg Sausage McMuffin set again not just because I love it (tho I do =) it tastes so good), also because the other breakfast sets are just so environmentally unfriendly with the disposable plates and covers. =P

I don't understand why they have "No Straws Day" to try to save the environment, you just compare the straw with the plate/cover... or maybe even with the plastic cover of the cup... you'll realise how insignificant it is, even though I opt to drink my coke without the straw. I forgot to ask them not to put in the ice cubes again! Every single time I try to drink this without a straw!! I forgot all those cubes are going to fall when I try to drink!!

And enjoy my breakfast with internet on my eeePC! YEAH! I can only surf the web, but not check emails, since there is still no way to access the internet securely at McDonald's.

Two posts about McDonald's on the same day, haha!

Did we ever think about the consequences of the "small" things we did?

I remembered watching on TV: actor Li AhPeng threatening the Hong Kong reporter and barely able to restrain himself on violence against the reporter.

What I was thinking was that the Hong Kong reporter deserved that. It's so very understandable for a father to be protective of his own children.

Apparently most Chinese have the same thoughts as mine according to a poll on the web.

I still remembered explaining to my mom why the reporter wanted to get a picture of Li's daughter after watching that short clip on TV, as my mom is even more ignorant on celebrity gossip than me. (In case, you're just like my mom, his daughter got cleft lip.)

Why is it that we want to see what his daughter looks like?

Come to think of it, why is it that we want to know about these celebrities who have nothing to do with us? This pathological curiosity is driving these paparazzi into doing crazy stunts.

So many reading materials in the world, so many types of entertainment, why do we need to read about these celebrities? Even if one hate reading "words" and just want to read a magazine that requires no brain cells at all, one can just read a magazine on travelling or food, right?

If there's no market, this type of stuff simply won't happen.

Same thing with printing 10 pages of the same thing just for convenience's sake. If you think about the consequences-- the sheer number of trees it will involve if everyone in the world uses 10 more sheets of paper.

Instead of saying the 10 sheets of paper I used , or the one magazine I bought is not going to make a difference to the world, think about this-- if everyone keeps saying the same thing like this, this world is never going to change.

How come so many people agreed with the actions of Li AhPeng in protecting his own child, yet the magazines' sale is still so strong? If you think protection of children is important, why not start protecting his children by stop reading these gossip magazines?

Items you never know could be recycled

Did you know eyeglasses, foam packaging, shoes (!), carpets, jeans, iPods can be recycled??!!!

Some of the things on the list I knew about, e.g. CDs, monitors, printer cartridges, batteries... but seriously... eyeglasses!! and shoes!!

Read more here.

Stop buying Bottled Water

Today is Blog Action Day, and the topic is on environmental protection. I've decided to challenge you guys to do one thing to help the earth that should be possible for all of you.

After some thinking, I've come up with bottled water.

Apart from my wallet and my keys, there are two things I bring every day wherever I go. One is umbrella, the second is bottled water. I use the same bottle over and over until it gets old, and refill the water at home/work/church.

It is plainly unwise to buy bottled water- both financially and environmentally. Recycling/reusing them is easy to do, and helps the environment.

According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.

Besides the sheer number of plastic bottles produced each year, the energy required to manufacture and transport these bottles to market severely drains limited fossil fuels. Bottled water companies, due to their unregulated use of valuable resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles have presented a significant strain on the environment.

From PBS.org
"There's been a major public relations campaign launched to convince the people that bottled water is safer, and better, and purer than tap water; what our study found is: it ain't necessarily so."

And a story of a guy who broke up with his girlfriend because he refused to pay for a new bottled water.

I thought I was extreme already, carrying all the bottles in my bag until I can find a recycle bin, even when they are all empty and even when I'm travelling overseas. (I also do the same thing with paper. I never put paper into rubbish bin. =P) Btw, my water bottle is regularly cleaned.

The problem of reusing is that water stored in old plastic bottles are of poorer quality, no one is sure of the long term effects, but for most of the stuff we use, we're not sure of the long term effect anyway, so it's ok for me. If you're really afraid, you can buy a safer reusable water bottle. Scroll down this page to see safer water bottles.

PLEASE START HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHATEVER WAY YOU CAN STARTING FROM TODAY!!

Check out my other blog for another environmentally related post.

October 15

If you know me, you'll know my concern for the environment. This year, the theme for Blog Action Day is environment. Join in if you have a blog.





Yangtsz River dolphin extinct

A freshwater dolphin found only in China is now "likely to be extinct", a team of scientists has concluded.
The researchers failed to spot any Yangtze river dolphins, also known as baijis, during an extensive six-week survey of the mammals' habitat.
The team, writing in Biology Letters journal, blamed unregulated fishing as the main reason behind their demise.
If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years...

"The Yangtze river dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago," Dr Turvey explained.
"This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."

Read the news here on BBC.

Lee Hom Wang

I have never understood why many of my friends love Wang Lee Hom. (Don't throw tomatoes at me.) Ahem... I don't think he's all that good looking and I don't like his songs either. (Though I have to admit I haven't listened to many of his songs.)

I am impressed with the theme for his next CD though. He intended to use his music to promote environmental protection, and he's not just saying it. When the reporter asked him if he tried to use less air conditioning at home as he's so environmentally conscious, he said yes.

I always tried to tell people to be more environmentally friendly, though most of my time my advice seems to be ignored. Hopefully he'll have more success. =)

McDonald's

Tried this new Double Filet O' Fish today



As a set...



You see how many plastic bags and paper bags and wrappings there are... Most surprisingly, when I opened the packaging...



THERE'S AN ADDITIONAL LAYER OF WRAPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!