圣安德烈初级学院华文讲座 (3月20日)

圣安德烈初级学院 (St Andrew JC) 的黄映红老师邀请全球暖化研究小组在3月20日到圣安德烈初院举办华文讲座。

组员在下午1点到达圣安德烈初院摆设摊位，展示环保讯息和分发环保手册。华文讲座在下午3.45开始，到 4.30结束。400名修读华语的学生出席讲座。

在圣安德烈初级学院，组员们受到圣安德烈初院华文部老师的热情款待，让我们深受鼓舞。（毕竟还是有许多教师/学生关心环保课题的 :>）


以下是老师/ 学生们给于我们的一些反馈：

感谢您和团队到来分享。说真的，我打从心里佩服你们的精神，这个地球真的需要很多像你们这样的人，只可惜这是个功利主义的社会，人们不懂得自然环保，更不懂得心灵环保。请继续努力，地球能够感受您的关怀！加油！
- 黄映红老师，华文老师，圣安德烈初院。

讲座提供了学生一些有用的讯息。资料、数据充足。谢谢你们的努力！
-Jiang Li, 华文老师，圣安德烈初院。

学生们的反馈：
*最大的收获是更深入了解地球暖化的原因。
*我学到全球暖化有多严重，而且我们都应该支持环保
*我学到在自己的生活中做出小小的改变，能对地球有很大的影响。
*知道地球暖化会带来多少灾害，并且让我知道我能够怎样出一份力来延缓地球暖化。
*我学到地球温度上升对动物和人们有多大的影响。我也了解到吃很多肉对地球的影响。尤其是牛肉，因为生产牛肉最消耗资源。

Student’s feedback：
- The talk let us know why saving the planet is essential. It is interesting because Mr Low offered a lot of visual learning points. (videos)

- It has made me much more aware of the urgency of climate change and the importance for individual responsibility of being a global citizen to help solve the problem of depleting nature of the earth.

- I learnt even more ways to save the environment. In addition, I got to understand how vulnerable the world is due to inconsiderate acts by human.

- The earth really needs our attention because of so much harm we as humans have done to it.

- I learnt to cherish our environment and how important it is for us to take care and be responsible for it!

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.

Mr Bill Clinton on reducing Methane to curb climate change

In Apr 2011, former US president Mr Bill Clinton speaks about the effects of Climate change on water and food resources. He also speaks about the advantage of reducing short-term green house gas such as Methane & Black carbon (as compared to reducing Carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere.

He cited a UN Feb 2011 report ('Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone') which informs that making an aggressive effort to reduce Methane & Black Carbon in the atmosphere would buy the world another 20 years to deal with the CO2 issue.

Animal agriculture causes 36% of Global Methane emissions.
Burning forest caused 40% of black carbon emissions.

Thus, to reduce Methane and Black Carbon, we need to reduce animal industry and reduce the burning of forest
......

For more info, pls read the following News Article : "Global warming rate could be halved by controlling 2 pollutants, UN study says"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/global-warming-can-be-halved-study-finds/2011/02/23/ABw6CkI_story.html"

Cleaning the air would limit short-term climate warming"
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=482&Print=Yes

Meet-Up @ Vegan Burg (09 Dec)

Global Warming Study group organized a meet-up @ Vegan Burg on 09 Dec.
14 people attended the Meet-up.

Attendees included:
Lynda Young, who pioneers a cycling movement in Singapore.
Cai Li, who runs a business selling clothes made from recycled plastic bottles.
Khloie Tan, a primary school teacher.
Lee Kang Hua, who leads a community garden in IMH.

Elaine Sam, an enthusiastic student leader in Singapore Poly’s Environment Club.
Joyce & Ong Chin Leng. NTU undergraduates who provides tuition service for students. Website: http://www.sofachievers.com/
(Joyce is also a youth leader who promotes environmental awareness among youths.)

We discussed many environmental topics (from factory farms to community gardening/ from Global warming to Veg Diet to reduce green house gas.) We also discussed on how to spread the green message to the public. :> It was a fruitful session and we are delighted to meet so many like-minded youths who are concern of the environment.

UNEP 2010 Jun report Summary

In Jun 2010, UNEP (UN Environment Program) published a report
““Accessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production:
Priority, Product and Materials”. The report studies how our
consumption patterns impacts the Environment.

The UN panel gathered many scientists to provide science-based
assessments of how products, materials and economic and lifestyle
activities, impacts the planet. It is the first global assessment to
determine which type of consumption activities have the biggest impact
on the environment.

The purpose of this U.N. Environment Programme-sponsored study was to
identify the "hot spots" in terms of environmental impacts so that
policy makers can use this information to reform policies
............

Summary of UNEP Jun 2010 report:
· Two broad areas are currently having a disproportionately
high impact on people and the planet's life support systems-these are
1) Energy in the form of fossil fuels and 2) Agriculture, especially
the raising of livestock for meat and dairy products.

· A doubling of wealth leads to a 60% to 80% increase in CO2
emissions. (In emerging economies, increase in CO2 emissions are even
higher.)

· Rising affluence had triggered a shift in diets towards meat
and dairy products- livestock now consumes much of the world's crops
and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilizers and
pesticides linked with that crop production in the first place

· Agricultural goods, particularly products from animals,
which are fed more than half of all world crops, have a huge impact on
the planet. Agricultural production accounts for 70% of the global
freshwater consumption and 38% of the total land use. Food production
accounts for 19% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 60% of
the phosphorus and nitrogen pollution and 30% of toxic pollution in
Europe

· In most countries, household consumption, over the life
cycle of the products and services, accounts for more than 60% of all
impacts of consumption.

The report recommends the following:
· “Decoupling growth from environmental degradation is the
number one challenge facing governments. “ However, the report shows
that this decoupling is not happening, and it will not happen in the
future without strong policy interventions.

· “A Substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible
with a substantial worldwide diet change away from animal products.”
The report calls for a significant shift in diets away from animal
based proteins towards more vegetable-based foods in order to
dramatically reduce pressures on the environment.
……………..
The following is a youtube video on the UNEP report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB3kfaomWs0

..............

News article on the UN Report:
The Guardian: UN urges global move to meat and dairy-free diet:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet

The Telegraph: Eat less meat to save the planet - UN
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7797594/Eat-less-meat-to-save-the-planet-UN.html

More info can be found in the following websites:
http://www.stwr.org/climate-change-environment/the-environmental-impacts-of-consumption-and-production.html

UNEP “Accessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and
Production: Priority, Product and Materials”Full report (112 pgs) :
1. http://www.unep.fr/scp/publications/details.asp?id=DTI/1262/PA
2. http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx1262xPA-PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report.pdf
………

The report shows that globally, we (as consumers) should adopt a diet
change, away from animal products, to reduce our impact on the
environment.

Perhaps, we can start by adopting meatless days to help the planet:
www.veggiethursday.sg
http://www.meatfreemondays.co.uk/

Let’s do all we can to help the planet.

SPRING Singapore GW lunch-talk (01 Dec)

Ms Ariel Lee, Senior Officer from Textile & Apparel Department of SPRING Singapore, invited Mr Low to conduct a GW company lunch talk on 01 Dec to 30 staffs from SPRING.

For this special event, Ms Ariel Lee catered vegetarian food from Loving Hut (a local Vegan restaurant) for the staffs.

The lunch talk was held at Solaris building, an elegant white-and-blue building with space-age design. While looking at the building, Mr Low felt that humans who are capable of designing and building such elegant structures should be able to work together to halt global warming and secure a future for mankind.

The following are some Feedbacks for the GW talk:

Mr Low is a good speaker, friendly and interactive while conducting the talk. The talk creates an awareness of the seriousness of global warming and provided solutions to reduce global warming. It encourage people to eat more veg / less meat and promotes a “Go Green” environment. Comprehensive materials such as handouts and DVDs are given out to participants after the talk.
– Jeslin Yee, Admin staff, SPRING

Very informative talk, speaker is very passionate. We’ll try to change to eat more vegetable. Videos shown are an eye-opener, we never realise there are so many hungry people around. - Susie/ Juan / Gerard, SPRING

The talk was interesting. Creates awareness about the present global warming situation. Really impresses upon going veg! Keep the good work going, Good Luck!
- Saliha/ Thana, SPRING

Pro-teach Event @ 8 treasures (25 Nov)

On 25 Nov, Pro-teach CEO, Ms Peggy Ong, invited Mr Ganga (Chief Editor of VegeVibe Magazine), Mr Low & Dr Priya to 8 Treasures vegetarian restaurant to speak to 50 Pro-teach staffs.Mr Ganga presented on Kindness to animals, Mr Low spoke on Global Warming & Solutions to climate change and Dr Priya discussed with the staffs about the Health benefits of a Vege diet.

Pro-teach staffs enjoyed a 9-course veggie lunch as they learnt about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet from the various speakers.

Pro-teach management team gave the following comments on the GW talk:

This is a powerful talk that wakes all of us up from our complacency. It empowers us with clear knowledge of how regular people like us can take charge of our destiny and our children's future just by choosing our food responsibly. Since the quickest solution to global warming is by reducing the consumption of meat, Pro-Teach pledges do our part by offering at least twice weekly plant-based lunch to our students across 29 branches! Thank you Mr Low for your generous and selfless sharing! - Ms Peggy Ong, CEO, Pro-Teach Education Group Pte Ltd

The talk strikes into the heart of the whole climate change problem. It reveals the truth which certain industries doesn't want the world to know about. The danger is clear and present: act now or it'll be too late!"
- Mr Aden Gan, Branch Head, Pro-teach Education Group

GW Booth & Seminar @ Singapore Polytechnic (16 Nov)

On 16 Nov, Singapore Polytechnic Environment club invited GW study group to set up a booth @ SP to promote environmental awareness to SP students. We set up a booth from 10am till 3:30pm. Mr Low conducted a GW presentation to 25 students from 3:30 till 5pm. SP students listened very attentively during the seminar.

Feedbacks for the seminar includes:

This talk was awesome! It raises awareness of climate change and the factors that causes it. I really urge all of you to attend the seminar too! Cheers! Go Green, Be Veg, Save the planet! - Jocelyn Lim, SP student

It was really eye-opening and inspiring. I enjoyed it a lot as the speaker is very passionate in conveying the message. Thanks for everything. – Gan Bee Li, SP student

Speech is given clearly and understandable. Able to provide easy-understanding information regarding the impact of human activities on Earth. – Raymond Sim, SP student

The talk is very informative and I believe that it benefits all walks of life. It is a talk which will raise people's awareness ! - Lai Hong Chern, SP student

Republic Polytechnic Technology Day (16 Nov)

Dr Amy Choong, a lecturer in Republic Polytechnic, invited Mr Low to attend a series of talks at Republic Polytechnic on RP’s “Environment & sustainability Cluster Technology Day 2011” held on 16 Nov. Mr Low attend the talks from 9 till 12pm and learnt about the development of green energy such as Photovoltaic cells & Biofuels in Singapore.

GW Booth @ Woodlands Ring Primary school (15 Nov)

GW study group was invited by Ms Mazlindah to set up a booth at Woodlands Ring Primary School’s Science Carnival on 15 Nov. Neighbouring Primary schools such as Innova Primary, Admiralty Primary, Sembawang Primary also set up booths to display their science projects. We networked with the teachers of various schools during the carnival. Many teachers showed concern for the environment and some school were interested to invite us to conduct assembly talks for 2012.