Assembly Talk & Booth @ Northland Primary (19 Mar)

Mrs Prema Suresh, Environment co-ordinator in Northland Primary School, invited GW Study group to conduct an Assembly talk and set up a booth in NL Primary on 19 Mar. This is the second time NL Primary has invited Mr Low to conduct an Assembly talk.

Mr Low spoke of protecting the ocean (reduce overfishing), protecting the forest (plant trees, reduce cattle farms in Amazon rainforest) & reducing the environment impact of animal factory farms. He also introduced various environmental heroes such as Sea shepherd (Ocean protector) & Dr Jane Goodall (Forest protector) to the students. At the end of the presentation Mr Low requested the students to support Earth Hour by switching off lights for 1 hr (8.30 to 9.30pm) on 31 Mar.                                                   
The talk was very well received by Northland Primary School.

Some feedbacks from teachers and students on the Assembly talk are as follows:

Principal/ Teacher’s feedback 
It is good to raise students’ awareness of how their lifestyle impacts global warming by bringing the message to schools.
- Mr Teoh Tiong Sau, Principal of Northland Primary

The talk was very informative and pupils were captivated. It was a good talk.
- Mr Ganesan Arumugan, Teacher, NLPS

Students’ Feedback: 
The talk during assembly made me very regretful because human is destroying Mother Earth. I love this talk a lot also because I learnt more things that I can do to save Mother Earth. I will do my part by sharing all the things that is happening on Mother Earth to my friends and parents and also try not to eat meat every day. – Janelle Tan, NLPS student

I enjoyed the Global warming seminar because it spread awareness about global warming. I have learnt that overfishing causes extinction of many species of fishes. I will eat less meat and plant more trees.
 – Raymond Lim Wei, NLPS student

I like the Global Warming Seminar. I have learnt that we must help Mother Earth and not harm her. I will not eat big fishes like Tuna and Sharks fin. – Claire Ng, NLPS student

I love the talk, I learnt that we must conserve energy and eat less beef, tuna, shark fin and mutton. I would help by switching off the light when not in use. – Shinji, NLPS student

The video clips were interesting. I also learnt how to save planet earth. It was fun!
– Neha Basak, NLPS student

Pro-Teach Bukit Batok GW talks (15 Mar 2012)

Mr Low with Ms Fiona Pea

Ms Peggy Ong, CEO of Pro-teach Education Group, invited Mr Low to conduct 2 Global Warming talks at Pro-teach student care center (Bukit Batok branch) on 15 Mar. Mr Low presented a GW talk to the P4 to P6 students. A simplified version was presented to the P1-P3 students.

Ms Fiona Pea, Business & Operations Director of Pro-teach (Bukit Batok Branch), wrote the following feedback on the sessions:

Thank you, Mr Low for the informative session on environment. I felt the first video, which show the children how wonderful our Earth is (before what happens to Earth now), is very appropriate. The content was light hearted and suitable for the lower primary too. Relevant questions were asked before proceeding to the topic to make the students understand the situation better. (e.g. would we use the food we have to feed humans or the animals etc.)

华社自助理事会(CDAC) 乐龄午餐活动 (3月10日)

华社自助理事会(CDAC)义工联系与发展执行员王明利女士邀请全球暖化研究小组参加华社3月份在菜市联络所举办的乐龄午餐活动。为了支持环保，华社为今年的乐龄午餐活动订购了素食午餐。

在3月10日，有200位乐龄人士、250位小学生和70位义工出席这个乐龄午餐。活动当天，全球暖化研究小组成员在联络所摆设摊位，展示环保讯息。刘先生也和组员婷婷、伟滔到台上呈现10分钟的环保短剧。短剧简略地展示全球暖化对世界的影响，并提倡人们通过减低肉类饮食来减低碳排放，并保护世界的粮食和食水资源。



这次的乐龄午餐的由‘爱家’素食餐馆 (Loving Hut) 包办，提供的佳肴包括素春卷、梅菜和素沙爹等。参加这次活动的人，都对美味的素食佳肴留下深刻的印象。

Assembly Talk @ Fernvale Gardens School on 09 Mar

Mrs Gina Ng invited Mr Low to conduct an environment assembly talk to 200 students in Fernvale Gardens School. The talk is geared towards P1 & P2 level for the students in the school.

Teachers’ feedback:
Your assembly talk to our students have created an impact and help them understand better the everyday choices and implications these choices impacts and causes global warming, hurting the environment and subsequently life on the planet. The use of visuals and animation is helpful and attention grabbing. It helps to capture our pupils attention and help them understand the abstract concept of global warming. The half hour sessions was just nice for our students especially for those with short attention span.

Thank you for your sharing. I hope that with these information, the students will bring back home the necessary information in order that the families will be able to adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Eco-Singapore Movie Screening “Food Inc” @ One Marina Boulevard on 22 Feb

Eco-Singapore & Young NTUC organized a movie screening “Food Inc” on 22 Feb 2012 to increase the public’s awareness of how our food get from the farms to the consumer.

To increase the participant’s understanding of food issues, Eco-Singapore invited 2 guest speakers to speak on the occasion:
1. Mr Low (from GW study Group) spoke on the environmental impacts of factory farms.
2. Mr Woon Tien Wei (from Post-Museum) spoke on the Soup Kitchen Project – A Project which helps to provide food (once a week) for the needy at Little India.

On 22 Feb, 25 participants attended the event.
After watching the movie, many participants realized that the animal factory farming industry is profit-driven. The industry produces the most food at the shortest time possible but it neglects the welfare of the animals and jeopardized the consumer’s health.

During the discussion session after the movie, participants raised many questions regarding factory farms, organic farming and GMO food. Mr Low urged everyone to go back to nature, eat natural food, and follow the natural diet for humans (which consist of mostly vegetables, grains and fruits). He quoted Gandhi’s famous words “Nature has enough resources to provide for humans’ needs, BUT not for humans’ Greed.” Many participants agreed with that.

Youth Climate Change Forum @ NUS on 16 Feb 2012

Mr Tan Hang Chong from Nature Society send a Facebook invitation to Mr Low to attend a Youth Climate Change Forum held in NUS on 16 Feb 2012.
The forum is organized by NUS Students Against Violation of the Earth (SAVE) and Political Association (PA), with support from National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS).

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, is the speaker of the event. He share the Government's positions, constraints and trade-offs regarding climate change and its impact on Singapore. Dr Vivan Balakrishnan mentioned that the major producers of Green house gases are China, US and India. In comparison, Singapore produces less than 1% of the world’s green house gas. However, we would continue to do our part to reduce green house gas emissions.
Dr Vivan encourages students to reduce energy usage, save electricity, design energy-efficient buildings etc to curb climate change.

During the forum, Mr Low point out that meat production causes about 20% of the world’s green house gases emission. Meat production also uses 5 to 80 times more water and 3 to 8 times more food compared to vegetable production. He suggests that the government can promote meatless days to the people as a way to reduce carbon footprint and conserve the food and water resource of the world.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan acknowledged that meat production uses up much more resources than vegetable production and the most eco-friendly diet is a plant-based diet. He mentioned that NGOs can conduct more forums to educate the public on the environmental impacts of various diets and health benefits of a more plant-based diet.