George Monbiot speaks about air travel and Love Miles

there is no environmentally alternative to flying…. the solution simply is to fly less.

the video continues here,,,

more about “George Monbiot speaks about air trave…“, posted with vodpod

Supporting the cause for peace in tibet

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid203719194/bclid86272812/bctid1463311246

Nadya Hutagalung’s Eco House (Female Mag March 2008 edition)

Well I guess it’s my house as well! We’re constantly looking for eco friendly technologies for the home, so if you know of or have any, please tell us!

Click for larger image

Tags: green, nadya hutagalung

Man and what he does to the earth…

It’s rare that I look at the comics section of the newspapers but for some random reason today, I scanned through the Straitstimes comics section and this piece from Bizarro jumped out at me.

Why are we destroying the earth that we live on?!

Tags: green

Subscribe by Email

Green organic goodies for mama and baby

Last night, Nadya and I happened across a small cart on the 3rd floor of Great World City stocked with really cute baby clothings and oils and creams for expecting mothers. We picked up 3 Speesees bodysuits for our baby girl and a bottle of Erbaviva Stretch Mark Oil for Nadya.

Christmas Giving

It’s that time of the year again…. lots of Christmas cheer all around us. And an especially good time for us to recognize how lucky we all are and a perfect time to consider giving something different for this Christmas. An idea would be to donate to your favourite charity and dedicating that act as a Christmas gift for your loved ones?

Justgive.org and ChangingThePresent.org are just two of the many possibilities available.  We’ve used ChangingThePresent.org and it feels great to give something so meaningful.

Spread the Christmas cheer!

beautiful eco friendly house – prefab concrete!

Straits Times: Finished! Marathon Swim For Charity 12 Nov 07

Straits Times: Marathon Swim For Charity 12 Nov 07, originally uploaded by sportinc.

Well done everyone on finishing the swim and Trevor on a job well done! Gerald and I still have more donations coming in…

p.s. Clarification – I swam 400 laps in the pool for a total of 20km yesterday instead! But I would say that my intentions remained the same – to raise money for the Student Advisory Centre.

6hr 10 min 16 sec

6hr 10 min 16 sec, originally uploaded by sportinc.

6hr 10 min 16 sec. That was how long it took me to complete 20km in the pool – total 400 laps (in the 50m pool)! I started at 630am this morning and finished at around 1240pm. Ouch.

3 days to go and counting…

Just 3 days to go before some of us take the plunge this Sunday at Turi Beach Resort in Batam Indonesia on the first ever group swim from Batam to Singapore! But for me, it’ll be 20km in the pool at SAF Changi Beach – finish point of the swim. If it works out, I’ll join the group for the final few kms back to the beach.

20km in a swimming pool instead… oh well…

It’s with much sadness that I have decided against swimming from Batam Indonesia to Singapore and will instead do the 20km distance in a 50m pool, which ideally would be the pool at the SAF Sailing Club in Changi where my brother and the rest of the swimmers will end their swim in Singapore.

Feature in Lianhe Zaobao Chinese Press 1 Nov 2007

Lianhe Zaobao 1 Nov 2007, originally uploaded by sportinc.

Another feature out in today’s Chinese Press of our upcoming charity swim…. pictures were taken 2 weekends ago when we did a trial swim from Batam. I must admit that I was actually quite scared while swimming in the ocean in the trial swim.

Hopefully we’ll have enough safety boats and medical officers with us and all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed around safety issues. It was particularly scary when we came close to the “international waters” channel where the giant tankers and container ships pass by!

Student Advisory Centre in the Press!

Many of you have asked me for more info about the Student Advisory Centre and why I support them… here’s a great article featured in the Straits Times on 20 Oct 2007. Trevor’s amazing. He’s been running SAC for about 4 years now and only 26 years old! Well done and keep up the good work Trevor. I admire you for doing so much for the less fortunate youth in Singapore.

So friends, please keep those donations coming for our charity swim in aid of the Student Advisory Centre!

Coverage in Wanbao Chinese Newspaper 19 Oct

wanbao 19-oct charity swim, originally uploaded by sportinc.

Many thanks to Wanbao for providing some coverage on our efforts – no doubt helps us in generating additional publicity and more monies donated! Please share with your friends and family, and keep those donations coming. We are truly grateful for your kind support.

27 days to the big swim… and counting

Just 27 more days before we take the plunge for our 20km swim adventure from Batam to Singapore.

We’re swimming from Batam to Singapore Instead!

Hi everyone, here’s a quick update! The swim has now been postponed to 11 November where the tidal stream will be favourable for us to swim from Batam, Indonesia to Singapore. The original plan was to swim from Singapore to Batam Indonesia.

DATE OF SWIM 11 November 2007
TIME 0730 hrs
START POINT Nongsa Beach Resort, Batam
END POINT SAF Changi Yacht Club

A Very Special Cross Border Charity “Transaction” – Swim from Singapore to Batam!

CLICK HERE FOR UPDATES

It’s been a long while since my last charitable effort in March 2006 (Lake Taupo Ironman) but better late than never. I am delighted to announce that on 22nd October 2007 at 0730hrs, my brother Gerald and I will each swim ~20km from Singapore (start point SAF Changi Yacht Club) to Batam (end point Nongsa Beach Resort) !!! Yes, it’s insane and borderline silly but it’s a decision made from the heart in the spur of the moment. I guess we’re gluttons for pain. My wife calls them silly “male chest beating” activities. My simply reply is that it’s for a good cause!

“I will not lose”

2 weeks ago I spoke to a group of youth at the Student Advisory Center under its Recharge Program. I didn’t know what to expect and I actually enjoyed interacting with the kids. All I had to do was tell the story of how I lead my younger years as a swimmer while at the same time keeping up and doing well in school. One of the key points I mentioned during the talk was that it’s much easier to win than to lose! And champions are those who win after losing and know how to deal with losing. A loser is one who lets defeat defeat him.

Along the same lines… “I will not lose” is a great campaign by Roca Wear that features personalities that have done well in their fields – this one by Jonathan Vilma who plays football for the Jets stuck a cord with me. Although he had the dream of playing professional football while at college, he still kept a respectable GPA of 3.5 just in case that dream didn’t work out. (Trevor – you can share this with the kids in the recharge program). Check it out here…

Eco-friendly bike rentals in Singapore someday?

Paris joins European cities of Barcelona, Geneva, Stockholm, Oslo and Vienna in offering bicycle rentals in the city in an effort to reduce the number of cars and help reduce pollution and improve air quality.  Some 13,000 people have already signed up for the rental service – registered bike users pay on an annual basis while occasional riders can use a credit card for a one-off daily fee.   Also check out this piece from Treehugger on Bicing in Barcelona.

I am hopeful that one day Singaporeans and tourists may one day be able to enjoy this same mode of travel around town – and why not?  But first we do need safer streets in Singapore – perhaps bike lanes in selected areas!

Things I would really love to do in this lifetime…

Friends have often asked me what I would really love to do in this life and I would say that I would love to climb Mount Everest or do exactly what Greg is doing at the moment! Push myself to the limit in some far out endurance sports activity while raising monies to help others. Imagine the exhileration – from the physical exertion and also from the high of helping others. Painfully beautiful.

Greg is really hardcore. Just last month he set a new world record by pedalling 173.76km in 24hours in his human powered boat! Truly pollution free transportation – human power is the way to go!

Check out the Adventures of Greg.

Greg is now training for his next major effort in 2008 – it sounds like so much fun! I’ll just have to convince my other half that such efforts are not really as dangerous as it seems.

“In December of 2008, Greg is going to pedal his human powered boat ‘WiTHiN’ 3000 miles across the Atlantic ocean in less than 40 days setting a new crossing record while raising money to fund his school speaking program “KidPower.”