The way of life since WW2, is proving to be not working anymore, and it's endangering all our natural resources. We are talking about mass production in everything-cars, toilet papers, cleaning products, food, buildings, furnitures, computers, packaging-absolutely everything-the completely way of life we live now-the IKEAs, the Walmarts, the giant supermarkets. Is it too late to start changing our way of living-when all the industries have developed to this point-there's no turning back?
..as far as the environment goes ( not to mentioning other 'areas ') they haven't done a very good job in HK after the British left !.....and the infrastructure was already there.....Westerners are as a matter of fact fleeing Hong Kong in great numbers...because it has become absolutely unbearable to live with the extreme high levels of pollution going on....
Yes I believe there is HOPE......it is just a matter of spreading the word...and make people aware of the enormous possibilities....new initiatives such as straw to be used as isolation material...shoes made of recycled materials from car tyres and plastic to be reused again instead of producing new...bamboo textiles 100% environmentally sound.. and even blocks to build house made of recycled paper......
Everyone should join in when thinking of a new projects if just for the love of our planet....architects and designers to start with.....
The packaging of products should really change, everything is over-packaged, all the plastic and papers used just to box something-not to mention the dye to produce the packages-it's a chain reaction-that's where fashion and entertainment industry can help spread the words in cut way back on packaging.
Lifestyles change. Consumerism. You cannot avoid it, even if you completely stop buying food and start growing/rearing your own food, you're still consuming fruits of your own labor for survival. There's too many by products and too much rubbish around.
The plastic bag phenomenon hasn't been educated for a long enough period in Singapore, many people still do not understand all of a sudden why the urge to cut down usage of plastic bags. I just find that the local media's focus on ecologically-friendly practices isn't strong enough in the past and now it is suddenly appearing everywhere, many people are struck by it.
its very strange the plastic bag phenomenom...i got used to taking my own bag to the supermarket in france because they make buying a sack(non-plastic)very expensive at check-out.
im the only one who does this in my home town.up north.worse i then cycle away.
the big wal-mart type malls seem to have a weird somnolent consumerist zombie type attack on people while they shop.
they seem to go into primordial-hunter type ethos consumming the world with plastic bags...with crazy phycotic snarls elbowing their way past each other in a breugel-painting episode of social darwinism.
theres no more dangerous place in the world than a supermarket car-park -shop-get it in the car in as many plastic bags as possible-dont look-run someone over-back to cave with-red meat and mushrooms in cellothane and reinforced plastic packaging!
In the past housewives here went domestic shopping with wooden or rattan shopping baskets in the open air markets. Wet goods like fish, shrimps or other seafood were wrapped up in a few layers of old newspaper and tied up with raffia. Fresh vegetables were bunched up, bound with a piece of old newspaper and tied up with raffia. Loose grains like rice or beans were sold in cones made with a couple layers of newspaper. Cooked food like chowmein or whatever chopsuey thingies were wrapped up in somekind of palm bark or banana leaves and tied up with raffia also. There's a kind of fresh leaf used like paperplates to serve streetfood...no plastics involved! Talk about being eco-friendly!
...sounds great !....but I wonder if it's done more out of 'necessity' than being really conscious about the environment ?....in any case such a practice is a big plus. Perhaps celebrities because of being ... 'role models'... such as Madonna would do us all a great favour by ...promoting... 'rattan shopping baskets..' in her next summer season's collection...and for the winter...practical fake-fur shopping bags....that would not only do the trick but it would certainly look absolutely fabulous and glamorous !...:):):)
That's when Singapore was still third world or emerging into the second world...about 25 years ago, when I was still a toddler. I could barely remember going to "wet markets" and once in a while an "open air" market. Those things were almost well phased out by the time I was 7 years old. I'd say it was the normal living standard then. No doubt it was shabbier and the hygiene levels were much lower and smelly rubbish everywhere, there was just less chemical pollution.
Now that we're conscious of being eco-friendly...we've used so much "disposable plastic materials" in the last 30 years it is very scary!
Good thing's that most of the rubbish in Singapore are incinerated and the heat is used to generate electricity. The fumes are electro-statically treated, whatever's going out of the exhaust is quite pollution.
"Good thing's that most of the rubbish in Singapore are incinerated and the heat is used to generate electricity. The fumes are electro-statically treated, whatever's going out of the exhaust is quite pollution."
Last para is missing a word at the end. What I meant is quite pollution-free.
