Stanley Lee

In recent years, attention on carbon emissions is rising, perhaps due to the peculiar weather patterns of heat waves unfamiliarly exceeding 40 C in the summer, and snow storms in places where water rarely froze in the winter. Sure, human activity, namely carbon emissions, garbage, and other pollution, has contributed significantly to the climate change. However, all the talk on the news, with politicians arguing between each other, diverts us from the facts and the real issues that deserve our attention.

For example, Canada (the country in which I am living in) is debating whether it should implement a carbon tax system in favor of the cap-and-trade system on an annual basis. The government may be pretending to be aligning with tree huggers and other environmentally-minded voters (no offense, if where you’re living is democratic), but the real agenda often involves increasing the revenues in their coffers or shifting the environmental responsibility from the producers onto the consumers (even though both are at fault for producing and buying garbage). We all hope legislative change from government to cap carbon emissions, but the status quo from the protecting each representative’s political agenda is preventing this to happen. However, the real catalyst of change in the environmental front lies in the hands of educated consumers and intelligent entrepreneurs taking advantage of the opportunity opened up by no one willing to initiate taking action.

Firstly, take a look at Bullfrog Power. They are a Canadian electricity producer for a lot of home owners choosing to power their homes with completely green methods. Sure, paying for green energy costs more (like buying genuine organic food as supposed to the genetically modified garbage that you buy at supermarkets). However, we are indebted to the next generation to keep the planet at least in habitable conditions for them to survive in. This company is taking advantage of the opportunity cleverly, as people cannot live productively (if at all for some people living on life support systems at their homes) on zero electricity even if they are environmentally conscious.

Secondly, even though the 3R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) sound cliché, they are still sound in helping to reduce emissions. Reduce consumption by skipping out on unnecessary mall and internet shopping, shutting off unnecessary electronics, taking shorter showers, wear more clothing in the winter to turn down the temperature on the thermostat, etc. Reuse involves giving away the items to other people that you no longer have uses for, but helpful to the recipient. Last, recycle the pop cans and plastic bottles (although you shouldn’t have many of those in the first place) and make sure you buy products made from recycled materials whenever possible, if product quality is not sacrificed.

Other than changing your consumption patterns and becoming more aware of opportunities to strike gold on popularizing a promising green idea, peripheral vision of the overall picture of the environmental problems is much needed. For example, the scarcity of clean drinking water and the problems with bottled water life cycle as described here:

Moreover, drought epidemic is happening to many places around the world (namely Australia, China, Singapore, Malta, southwestern United States). Water shortage does not just affect drinking water; it also affects electricity generation (whether it’s hydro, nuclear, or coal/fossil-fuel generated, as water is needed for either creating the electricity or cool the heat involved in the production process) and growing the crops to be used as biofuels (which needs 20x more water to use compared to the same volumetric unit of crude oil). Carbon emission isn’t the only problem that environmentalists should be concerned about. Water shortage problem is, and it is worsening at a faster rate than pollution in the atmosphere, with more dire consequences too.

If you’re concerned about these issues, you can do something about by changing your lifestyle, writing to government, and joining the forces that are already taking action. If you enjoyed reading this article, feel free to subscribe to the blog on the right panel!