FREE Assembly talks/ Seminars on Global Warming for Term 3 & Term 4

Looking for meaningful programs to fill up the Assembly time slots in Term 3 & Term 4?

Ever wonder how Global Warming is affecting the planet and what we can do to help to reduce global warming?

Our Global Warming Study group offers the following FREE Assembly programs for schools:

Primary schools :                                25 mins presentation + 5 mins Quiz

Secondary schools/ ITE/ NTU:           35 mins presentation + 10 Min Quiz

The presentation shows the effects of climate change on the world (i.e Arctic Ice melt, Droughts, floods, Sea level rise etc) and features various solutions that scientists recommended to curb climate change. (i.e. Plant trees, Eat less meat, Green Energy, 3Rs)

For the past few years we have conducted FREE Assembly talks / GW Seminars in the following schools / companies/ NGOs:

Primary Schools :  

Eunos Primary school, Nanyang Primary, Innova Primary, Sembawang Primary, Radin Mas Primary, Northland Primary, New Town Primary, CHIJ Kellock Primary, GreenRidge Primary

[For more info, pls visit: http://www.sosglobalwarming-ck.blogspot.com/search/label/2.%20Primary%20Sch%20Talks]

Secondary Schools/ ITE / JC/ Poly/ Universities :  

Hwa Chong Institute, Bedok Green Secondary, Zheng Hua Secondary, Chai Chee Secondary, Tampines ITE, St Andrews JC, Singapore Poly, NTU

[Pls visit:  http://www.sosglobalwarming-ck.blogspot.com/search/label/3.%20Sec%2F%20ITE%2F%20University%20Talks ]

Our seminars in Companies/ NGOs can be found in the following link:

http://www.sosglobalwarming-ck.blogspot.com/search/label/4.%20Company%20Talks%2F%20NGOs

If your school is interested to invite us to conduct a FREE Assembly program in Term 3 or Term 4, pls send an email to cklowck@yahoo.com.sg to book a date. Booking would be on first-come-first-serve basis. However, we would give priority to schools that have not engaged us for GW talks previously.

For schools that have already engaged our GW Assembly talks previously, you may consider to invite us to conduct Contact Time talks with teachers to further discuss the environmental topics. The Contact time talks can be 30 mins to 45 mins depending on the time slot the school allocates to us. If you like our Assembly talk, pls help to recommend the talk to neighboring schools so that everyone can join in to help the environment. 

Thanks for your continuous effort to promote environmental awareness among students and staffs.

Cheers n onwards,

Low ck

UNEP 2011 Report “Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone"

In Feb 2011, UNEP (UN Environment Program) published a report “Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone"

The report shows that:

The projected rise in global temperatures could be cut in half in coming years if world governments focused on reducing emissions of two harmful pollutants - Black Carbon and ground-level ozone, including Methane - rather than carbon dioxide alone.
The study further shows that a fairly aggressive strategy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions under current reduction scenarios "does little to mitigate warming over the next 20 to 30 years". With carbon dioxide reductions alone, global temperatures are still projected to rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 over pre-industrial levels.
But reducing black carbon and ground-level ozone reductions would delay the warming for another 20 years, until 2070, according to the study.

The following are additional info on the report:

Washinton Post : "Global warming rate could be halved by controlling 2 pollutants, UN study says"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022306885.html

NASA: "Cleaning the air would limit short-term climate warming"

http://climate.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=482&Print=Yes

Summary of the Articles:

1. Limiting Methane & Black Carbon could reduce ½ the warming that we will otherwise face over the next 40 yrs.   [Reduce 0.5 Deg C of warming]

2. Adopting 16 control measures to reduce Black Carbon, Ground level Ozone and Methane would save 2 million lives a yr and save 50 million tons of crops a year.

16 control measures include:

For black carbon, for example, we looked at the impact that replacing traditional cook stoves with cleaner-burning options, putting particle filters on vehicles, or banning the burning of agricultural waste might have. For ozone, we looked at measures like fixing leaky gas pipes, limiting methane emissions from mines, upgrading wastewater treatment systems, and aerating rice paddies.

3. Limiting Black Carbon, Ground level Ozone and Methane could reduce 2/3 of the warming in the Arctic over the next 50 years.

Adopting the 16 control measures could mitigate about two-thirds of the warming we'll likely otherwise see in the Arctic over the next half-century.

4. Reducing black carbon and ground-level ozone reductions would delay the warming for another 20 years

………..

The Full Report [37 pages] can be found in the following link:

UNEP Feb 2011 Report “Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone”

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/Integrated%20Assessment%20of%20Black%20Carbon%20low%20res.pdf

…..

Mr Bill Clinton, former US President, spoke about the report in Apr 2011.

He informs that Methane (from Animal Waste and Urban Garbage dumps) takes 12 years to disperse in the atmosphere while CO2 can take 100 years. He mention about the UN Feb 2011 report and 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.

Mr Bill Clinton on Climate change and Methane (4 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw8DNf0W27k&list=UUflkkiqtC9JHvnqcXNWFrRA

…..

During Dec 2011 UN Climate Change conference in Durban, Mrs Maneka Gandhi, long time environmental advocate and member of the Indian parliament, also speaks about the importance of reducing Methane to reduce Global Warming:

http://www.examiner.com/article/gandhi-declares-un-cop17-climate-talks-missed-solution-to-global-warming

Maneka Gandhi declares COP17 must deal with Methane: (video) 7 mins

http://www.examiner.com/video/press-conference-with-madame-maneka-gandhi

………..

  

The following is a compiled documentary showing the relation between Animal agriculture and Methane: (5 mins)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcjyn2GFJxk

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.

We can help by reducing meat consumption (to reduce animal industry) and supporting measures that protect the forest. (reduce the burning of forest, plant trees etc)

One way to start is 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.

Share a Song on World Hunger

In July 2011, Africa experienced the worst drought in 60 years. The drought caused severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya and threatens the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Tens of thousands of people died from hunger in Southern Somalia. The situation causes UN to declared famine in Southern Africa. (the first time in 30 years.)

In view of the situation, Sami Yusuf, a talented British singer of Iranian origin & UN Celebrity Partner for WFP(World Food Program), composed a beautiful song to raise funds to the UN WFP. The song was titled “Forgotten promises”. It shows humanity singing with one voice in solidarity with the drought victims and renewing pledge to deliver on forgotten promises.
Proceeds generated by the song was donated to the UN World Food Program (WFP)

Share with all the song. “Forgotten promises”- Sami Yusuf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKV2oeS4vw8

To learn more about the LiveFeed campaign, pls visit www.LiveFeedAfrica.org

Assembly Talk & Booth @ Bedok Green Secondary (25 May)

Mrs Tang-Lee Choon Tien, EEA / Environment Club teacher, invited GW Study Group to Bedok Green Secondary School to conduct an Assembly talk and set up a booth in the school on 25 May. Team members set up a booth near the school’s canteen and manned the booth from 10 till 1pm. Mr Low conducted the Assembly talk to students from 11:30am to 12 pm. The talk was very well received by the teachers and students.

The following are some feedbacks for the Assembly talk:

Teacher’s Feedback:
A scientific and richly informative talk that is expertly and engagingly presented. Wonderfully done. I learnt so very much.
– Mdm Lim Tze Mien, Vice-Principal, Bedok Green Secondary Sch

 ‘We found your talk very informative .The videos used - relevant, able to sustain students 'attention. Your supporting photos, Scientific evidence and speeches of famous world leaders- were all effective in transmitting your message to the audience. I have no doubt that your presentation and passion had impacted many of the students and teachers. Thanks once again for sacrificing your time to share your passion with us. Keep up the good job in environmental education.’
                       - Mrs Tang-Lee Choon Tien, EEA / Environment Club teacher

'The talk definitely raised awareness of presiding issues'
‘Very effective speech. Now I fully understand why eating less meat results in less destruction to the earth. I will definitely play my part."

Students’ Feedback:
I learn more about global warming and what is happening to Earth. I hope more people will take initiative to help the world. – Cheryl Mah, BGSS Student

I learn how to help the environment by doing things like eating more vegetables and conserving water. I will do all I can to save the Earth as a lot of people are suffering. – Nursalihah bte Adbul Rahman, student

I have learnt that we can help to reduce global warming by having one meatless day a week.
                                                                                                                – Ow Soey Jing, student

Good luck for your future talks in other schools. I will try my best to save the Ecosystems and encourage my friends to do so. – Tan Jian Jing, student

Booth @ Chestnut Drive Secondary (22 May)

Mdm Liaw from Chestnut Drive Secondary invited GW study group to set up a booth during the school’s green event on 22 May.

Team members set up a booth to distribute Climate change booklets to interested student from 10am to 12 pm.

.

During the event, students participated in song performances and dress up in outfits made of recycled material (eco-fashion show). Students also visited our booth to obtain more information on climate change

Assembly Talk & Booth @ Innova Primary (30 Apr)

In celebration of Earth week, Ms Ang Hwee Tit invited GW study group to Innova Primary to conduct an assembly talk and set up a booth on 30 Apr.

Mr Low conducted the assembly talk from 7.40 till 8.15 am. He presented on the effects of Climate change on the world (including Arctic Ice melt, Droughts, Floods Sea level rise etc). He showcased various solutions that scientists recommended to curb climate change. (i.e. Plant trees, Eat less meat, Green energy, 3Rs). At the end of the presentation, Mr Low conducted a 5-min Quiz, students participated actively in the Quiz.   

After the talk, team members set up a booth at the school canteen. We distribute "Eco-websites on climate change" leaflets & MRT card holders to the students. We also distribute free copies of Climate change Booklet to the teachers. We manned the booth from 9 till 12.30pm.


The following are some feedbacks for the assembly talk:

Teacher’s Feedback:

“Excellent variation of presentation with video and powerpoint. Informative, clear and impactful message.”   - Margart Yeo, Innova Primary teacher

“Very informative. I like the part about food and the environment, something that I didn’t know. Would recommend to others and adopt the lifestyle.”

– Ms Fio Ang Hwee tit, Environment Co-ordinator, Innova Primary teacher 

“Very informative and interesting.”   - Mr Chong TK, Innova Primary teacher

Students’ Feedback:

I like the presentation. It is very interesting. I have learn a lot about Global Warming

                                                                                     . – Syarwina Ridwan, Student

I am going to try my best to save the Earth because billions of people are homeless and had no food to eat.                                               – Nur Zafirah, student

The talk is full of excitement, I can relate to the videos (before and after). I can help by saving water and eating less meat           - Regina, student

I like the talk. I learnt how to save Mother Earth. I will shorten my shower from 15 mins to 5 mins.        
– Jing Yi, student

I like the talk because it is interesting and I learn a lot. For example: Do not cut down trees, eat more veggies and less meat. I will cycle or walk to school.

                                                                     – Clement Ho, student

GW Talk @ Family event (28 Apr)

Mdm Glow, a friend of Mr Low, invited Mr Low to her house to conduct a GW talk to 16 family members. Mr Low gave a 30 mins presentation on the how Climate Change is affecting the planet and what we can do to reduce global warming and preserve the food and water resources in the planet. Mdm Glow especially catered for an eco-friendly veggie dinner to treat her guests after the talk.

Mr Kevin Chan, a family member who worked as a Senior Broadcast Engineer commented on the talk “Very knowledgeable and well presented. Good information for everybody. Open up the realization of Global Warming.”

华文讲座 @佛教青年弘法团（4月28日）

佛教青年弘法团（Singapore Buddhist Youth Mission）的陈彩玲老师邀请全球暖化研究小组在4月28日到弘法团中心举办《地球健康由我做起》讲座。陈老师是在去年轻安村举办的《身心灵健康与环保研讨会》上听了刘先生的演讲，才认识全球暖化研究小组的。今年机缘成熟，陈老师再邀请刘先生到弘法团中心举办讲座。

讲座当天，145位小学生、15位中学生和50位学生家长出席讲座。刘先生在讲座中呈现了全球暖化对世界各地的影响（包括南北极冰川融化、各地旱灾/水灾、海平面上升等）也呈现了了科学家们提出的解决方案 [保护雨林、减少吃肉、绿色能源、减低/再用/再循环（3Rs）等]。学生和家长们都认真、专心地聆听讲座。刘先生在讲课结束后设了一个《有奖问答》项目，学生们都积极举手、踊跃参加。这次的讲座非常成功。临别时，陈彩玲老师还邀请刘先生下次再到弘法团中心举办环保讲座。

以下是一些师长的反馈：

 

讲座会非常棒！小朋友、大人、老师们都获益良多。希望能为中学生们多办一次讲座。     - 陈彩玲，佛教青年弘法团教师

The speaker is very knowledgeable on the topic and bring great awareness to the children and parents. Very encouraging. Mr Low interacted with the audience well.

                            - Jenny Wee, Program Co-ordinator, SBYM

I would like to say thank you to Mr Low and the organizer for conducting such a wonderful sharing to let everyone know and change their habit to save the Earth and ourselves.         

-  Mr Melvin Koh, parent of student in SBYM

UN World Water Day & Global Water Usage

UN World Water Day Website:

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

United Nation’s World Water Day falls on 22 Mar 2012.

This year’s theme for UN World Water Day is “Water and Food security”. UN is educating the public on the link between water usage and food production. “The world is thirsty because we are hungry”

There are some educational clips (available for download) in the UN website:

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/hungry_thirsty.html

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/allyoueat_en.html

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/animation_101.html

From the clips, UN informs that “A person needs to drink 2 to 4 litres of water a day. BUT we virtually eat 2000 to 5000 litres of water (embedded in our daily food) !

Producing 1 kg of wheat requires 1,500 litres of water, but producing 1kg of beef requires 15,000 litres of water (10 times as much!)  

UNFAO states that “Agriculture accounts for 70% of total water usage”.

& “90% of our total water consumption goes to produce today’s Food. ”  

It takes 1000 times more water to feed the human population then it does to satisfy it’s thirst.”

……..

The UN website also has some materials about water footprint of products.

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/campaign.html

Under the “Education Material” there is a “Water for Food Wall Chart” which shows how much water is needed to produce various food that we eat.

……..

UN recommends the following: 

“ When a billion people in the world already live in chronic hunger and water resources are under pressure we cannot pretend the problem is ‘elsewhere’. Coping with population growth and ensuring access to nutritious food to everyone call for a series of actions we can all help with:

• follow a healthier, sustainable diet;   (i.e. Eat more vegetables, eat less meat)
• consume less water-intensive products; 
• Reduce food wastage: 30% of the food produced worldwide is never eaten and the water used to produce it is definitively lost!
• produce more food, of better quality, with less water.

Water Footprint of Products

Water Footprint website: http://www.waterfootprint.org/

Professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra from University of Twente, Neitherlands, set up the website to inform the world about the water foot print of products. Prof Arjen Y. Hoekstra is also a United Nation scientist who specialise on Water issues.

During international conferences, Professor Hoekstra presented on global water usage. ( Prof Hoekstra presentation slides is available for download at:

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/Presentations )

In his presentations, Professor Hoekstra showed that:

*The water that a UK consumer uses at home accounts for only 3% of his water usage.

*97% of his water usage is embedded in the products he buy from the supermarket !!! [ A person would “use” 3400 litre (of water)/ day for agricultural products  & 1100 litre/ day for industrial products. ]

Professor Hoekstra has the following recommendation:

The indirect water footprint of a consumer is generally much larger than the direct one. A consumer has basically two options to reduce his or her indirect water footprint. One option is to change the consumption pattern by substituting a specific consumer product that has a large water footprint by another type of product that has a smaller water footprint. Examples include: eating less meat or becoming vegetarian, drinking plain water instead of coffee, or wearing less cotton and more artificial fibre clothes. This approach has limitations, because many people do not easily shift from eating meat to being vegetarian and people like their coffee and cotton.

A second option is to select the cotton, beef or coffee that has a relatively low water footprint or that has its footprint in an area that does not have high water scarcity. This requires, however, that consumers have the proper information to make that choice. Since this information is generally not easily available, an important thing consumers can do now is ask product transparency from businesses and regulation from governments. When information is available on the impacts of a certain article on the water system, consumers can make conscious choices about what they buy.

[ Slide 86: comments section in power point slide]

The Waterfootprint website has a products footprint section (updated in 2012):

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/productgallery

Producing 1kg of	Water usage  [litres]
Tomato	214 lt
Lettuce	240 lt
Orange	560 lt
Apple	822 lt
Corn	1220 lt
Rice	2500 lt
Chicken	4330 lt
Pork	5990 lt
Mutton (sheep)	10,400 lt
Beef	15,400 lt

Source：www.waterfootprint.org

From the table, we can see that producing 1kg of green leafy vegetables such as lettuce needs only 250 litres of water. Producing corn and rice needs 1200 to 2500 litres of water, but producing 1kg of meat requires 4,300 to 15,400 litres of water. Thus, producing meat requires 5 to 60 times more water than producing vegetables !!!

Thus, reducing meat consumption and eating more vegetables (as recommended by Prof Hoekstra) is an effective way a consumer can choose to reduce his water footprint.

In addition, the following facts are shown in the Water foot print website:

*The global water footprint in the period 1996-2005 was 9087 Gm3/yr (74% green, 11% blue, 15% grey). Agricultural production contributes 92% to this total footprint.

*Water scarcity affects over 2.7 billion people for at least one month each year

………

Currently, 1 billion people in the world are short of water. 

From the above 2 websites, we can see that 70% to 90% of the world’s water is used to produce food. (& 97% of the water we used is embedded in the products we buy from the supermarket)

Thus, the current practice of saving water at home (i.e. taking shorter baths, switching off the tap when soaping our hands), are NOT sufficient to help to conserve the water of the planet. [We still have to save water at home as it is a good practice and water usage contributes to our utility bills.] 

To effectively conserve the world’s water resource, we would need to reduce intake of food that are heavily water-intensive (i.e. meat) & choose to eat food that is less water-intensive (i.e. grains, fruits and vegetables).

One way to start is to support meatless days. [www.veggiethursday.sg ]

Meatless Mondays in Belgium:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=mMtT7IH4AV4

Alternatively, one can choose to adopt a “3/4 rice/veggies/fruits + 1/4 protein diet” that US 1^st lady Michelle Obama promotes in US. [ http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ ]

Let’s do our part to help to conserve the water resources in the world. :>

Green Drinks: Meet your NMP session (26 Apr)

Ms Olivia Choong, founder of Green Drinks (Singapore), send Mr Low a Facebook invitation to attend an evening Green Drinks session [ Meet your NMP ] @ National Youth Council Building.

2 Nominated Members of Parliament, Mr Nicholas Fang and Mrs Faizah Jamal shared with the participants on their platforms in parliament, and the environment issues they plan to raise.

Mr Nicholas is an executive director of defence materiel agency, and also a director of Singapore’s oldest political think tank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

Mdm Faizah Jamal is an Adjunct Lecturer at Republic Polytechnic pioneering the Environment Education module. She was previously a corporate lawyer specialising in Intellectual Property law with top Singapore law firms.

During the Green Drinks session, Mdm Faizah spoke about Nature being collaborative rather than competitive. She spoke about bringing the youth for nature walks to let the youths re-connect with Nature. Mr Nicholas and Mdm Faizah spoke on working with the government (rather than taking an opposite stand from the government) to promote green issues.

Many environmental issues including Bukit Brown, Climate change, sustainability, recycling etc were brought up during the discussion session. A member from GUI (Ground Up Initiative) inquired about the government’s action to curb climate change.  Mr Low raised a suggestion for the government to support meatless days to conserve the world’s food and resource and to improve the people’s health. Mr Nicolas showed interest in the idea and Mr Low passed him some information on meatless days when the session ends.

GW Seminar @ Starlite Printers (20 Apr)

Ms Agnes Lim from Starlite Printers invited GW Study group to present on environmental topic during their Supplier Day event. This is the 4^th time (over 3 years) Starlite Printers invited us to speak during their company event.

For this event, Mr Low presented on issues such as Protection of the Ocean (reduce Over-fishing, shark-fin ban), Protection of Forest, Biodiversity losses, Human’s Ecological footprint, Animal Factory farming, and reducing meat consumption to preserve Earth’s eco-systems, and conserve the planet’s food & water resources.

40 Starlite suppliers and staffs attended the event.

Mr Low and Starlite HR Manager, Mdm Jeryln Low

Feedback from Starlite:

“Very inspiring and eye-opening. Provides a solution to save the world and human. Great Job, Well Done!”      

-  Mr Bob Ngoo, Logistics Manager, Starlite Printers      

“Well prepared and great presentation skills in your delivery of the message”  

-  Ms Agnes Lim, Starlite Printers