the video continues here,,,

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Tags: green, nadya hutagalung

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

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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.

We struck up a lovely conversation with the young couple Patrick and Audrey who eluded much passion and belief in bringing organic eco-friendly products to babies and mamas. We were really touched by their efforts and wish them the best in their endeavours. They’ll be moving to their new store in Holland Village soon and we’ll update their new coordinates for you soon.

In the meantime, pay them a visit just in front of Golden Village Cinemas at 3rd Floor Great World City or visit their website.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: green

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!

(Click on the Thumbnails)

2000X Motorboard

The most advanced motorized scooter available on the planet!

The 2000X is a quantum leap in scooter design, technology, and performance, and promises to revolutionize urban travel.

The 2000X is not a toy. We don’t even like to call it a “scooter”. We call it a Motorboard. It is a serious transportation device with a top speed of 15mph, giving it the power and endurance necessary to get around in any urban environment. What’s even more incredible, is that the 2000X can be easily folded up, and weighing only 19.5lbs (8.8kg), it is light enough to be carried on the subway, train, bus, or into work.

The 2000X can be fully charged in under 120 minutes. And, unlike most other electric scooters out there, the 2000X can be kick-scooted due to our patent-pending free-wheeling technology, so even if your battery does die you won’t be stranded.

There’s also a pinic organizsed by Nature Society of Singapore tomorrow Wed 6 June 2007 at Sentosa.
Title: KIDS CELEBRATE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY:
World Environment Day Picnic at Sentosa
Date: Wed 6 Jun 2007
Time: 10.30am
Location: Sentosa
Meeting Point: Ficus Station, Sentosa
Registration Closing Date: 25 May

World Environment Day Picnic at Sentosa
Come have fun and picnic under an awesome heritage fig tree! Learn all about fig trees and animals that make these trees home. Find out how figs grow, what’s inside a fig, who eats figs, etc. Suitable for kids aged 5 to 9. Meet at Sentosa’s Ficus Station at 10.30am (tip: Park at Vivocity and take the train to Ficus Station). You will need a picnic mat, binoculars, comfortable walking shoes, light cotton clothing, water, your picnic meal and snacks, and herbal insect repellent. Registration is required.

To register, e-mail Vilma at vilma.drozario@nie.edu.sg and Zaki at bpelari@yahoo.com by 25 May 2007.

Doesn’t look like I’ll be able to make any of these activities. However, I made myself a personal promise, renewed my “vows” so to speak, to continue my goal of being environmentally friendly in my life. Let’s love Mother Earth.

About World Environment Day 2007
World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

Time we all got together and did a bit more lobbying with Ministry of The Environment and Water Resources as well as Ministry of Transport? When is “Green Transport Week” this year? Will give a call to a friend at the Singapore Environmental Council and revert soon!

dream factory001, originally uploaded by sportinc.

Perhaps sooner rather than later… we’ll use more custom pre-fab/pre-constructed building techniques in Singapore. We’ll definitely reduce wastage and require less sand and concrete!

Alternative energy

Green dreams
Nov 16th 2006 From The Economist print edition

The flood of money into clean energy is better news for society than it is for investors

COMPUTER chips and solar panels are made of the same basic stuff: thinly sliced silicon. Until recently, however, Silicon Valley did not take much interest in the alternative use of its principal raw material.

That has changed. California’s entrepreneurs are piling into clean-energy technology. In June a group of Silicon Valley luminaries invested $100m in Nanosolar, a firm which hopes to cut the cost of producing solar panels dramatically. The investors include some of the founders of eBay, the world’s biggest online auctioneer, and Germany’s SAP, a giant software firm. Nanosolar’s seed money came from Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who started Google. Last month their “do no evil” search-engine company announced plans to build the largest corporate solar-power installation at its Silicon Valley campus. The panels will supply about 30% of its electricity.

One estimate puts the total investment going into clean energy at $63 billion this year, up from $49 billion last year and just $30 billion in 2004. Some supposedly green business is more relabelling than revolution—companies flogging slightly more efficient versions of standard technologies as exciting innovations—but there is also a flood of money into new energy technologies. Clean energy now gobbles up almost a tenth of America’s venture capital. After years of wondering what would be the next big thing after the dotcom boom, America’s technology industry is betting on alternative energy (see article).

This is excellent news for society. More private-sector investment in green technologies will mean cheaper clean energy, lower fossil-fuel consumption and a greater chance of averting serious climate-change. It may not, however, be such good news for investors.

Déjà vu all over again

Displays of excessive enthusiasm for particular new technologies often end in tears. In the late 1990s, investors poured money into telecoms firms and dotcom start-ups. Some of the wild claims made at the time proved to be justified eventually, but not before around $1 trillion of value had been destroyed and many investors had lost their shirts.

The comparison is inexact. Nothing like as much money is going into clean energy as went into telecoms and internet firms. And there are solid, long-term reasons to expect demand for clean energy to grow. Governments do not want to rely on faraway, unstable or downright hostile countries for oil and gas. They are also increasingly concerned about pollution, especially in the form of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Most importantly, high fossil-fuel prices make alternatives look far more affordable and attractive.

Clean energy is also getting cheaper. The cost of wind-power generation has come down from 8-10 cents to 3.5-4 cents per kWh since 1990 because of better turbines and higher volumes. Solar-power prices have dropped too. The first cells, in satellites, cost about $200 per watt of generating power. By last year the price had fallen to about $2.70 per watt. The more money goes into the sector, the faster prices will fall.

But although the price gap between electricity generated by fossil fuels and that generated by alternatives has shrunk, it still exists. Making biodiesel remains more expensive than producing the non-bio sort. Burning natural gas is still a cheaper way of generating power than using wind turbines. And coal, the dirtiest of all energy sources, is still by far the cheapest. For the time being, clean energy is competitive in only a few countries in certain specific instances: solar power for retail electricity consumers in Japan, say, or ethanol made from sugarcane in Brazil. The sort of advances that will really change the world, such as ethanol that can be made cheaply from grass or trees, or solar cells that can be painted onto almost any surface, remain a distant prospect.

Almost all clean energy therefore relies on government subsidies to make it competitive with fossil fuels. For the moment, politicians seem quite happy to pay up. No fewer than 49 governments, according to Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, have established targets to promote greater use of renewable energy sources: the voters pay, either through higher prices or through direct subsidies.

So hip, so hot, so green

As far as voters are concerned, this is probably a reasonably good use of public money. Climate change is a real problem and the only way to tackle it is to reduce the gap between the price of fossil-fuel energy and alternative energy. But subsidies are not the best way to achieve that goal. Governments that try to pick winners often choose losers. Subsidies distort investment: since the German government fixed the price for solar power at munificent levels, the country has been sucking in huge numbers of solar panels that could be put to better use in sunnier climes. A global carbon tax would be a more efficient way to close the price gap between fossil and alternative fuels. But that solution is a long way off. In the meantime, subsidies for alternatives are probably better than no action.

That’s true for voters. But government subsidy is a wobbly foundation on which to build a business. Politicians are a fickle lot. Environmentalism is hot right now: it even featured on a recent cover of Vanity Fair, with Julia Roberts as a green fairy, George Clooney fetchingly attired in peasant gear and Al Gore brooding earthily. But fashions fade, and voters may begin to question the logic of certain subsidies as ever more firms take advantage of them and the bills begin to rise. As it is, the industry’s fortunes rise and fall with the level of official largesse. Wind power in America, for example, inflates and deflates on a two-year cycle, as a particular tax credit is renewed and then lapses again.

Society should rejoice that greenery is in vogue. Markets too will over the long term come to value the technologies in which the clean-energy business is investing. In the short term, though, the prospects of a business so dependent on the whims of politicians are bound to be uncertain. Some investors are sure to see their shirts blown away in the wind.

This was on the cover of the Straits Times last week and it really hit a nerve. And here we are in Singapore striving for the luxuries of life while so many in the world do not even have the basic necessities like water…. I carry 3 bottles of pure distilled water when I go out riding on my bike!

It’s amazing how we take the environment for granted, but I believe Singaporeans and our neighbouring countries are truly waking up to this horrendous calamity this time around.

None of us wish to live in this unhealthy haze and ultimately our health suffers. And we suffer due to the greed of a few unscrupulous plantation owners/companies who take the simple cheap route of clearing the land for new oil palm plantations. But it really does not have to be this way. Golden Hope, one of Malaysia’s largest plantation groups, pioneered an environmentally friendly zero-burning technique as far back as in 1989, and involves clearing land using excavators. Golden Hope, as a strong advocate of sustainable palm oil practices, has received numerous accolades for its good plantation practices. One of the most prestigious awards received by the company was the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Global 500 Roll of Honour for the commercialization of the zero-burning replanting technique. The company was the first plantation company in Malaysia to receive such an award. This technique has already been presented by the Malaysian Government to Indonesia and I really hope this gets implemented soon.

This disregard of the longer term effects of burning for short term monetary gain by the plantation owners ultimately affects us and the future generations. I for one would like to be able to swim and cycle outdoors, and enjoy the outdoors without the haze. Let’s do our part – it could be as simple as directing our investment monies to companies that are environmental aware/friendly and not to those that cause harm to the environment.

Following in my previous 10 things mantra…. here’s another 10 for our mother earth (and the next generations!)
10 Eco things to do
Here are 10 simple ways YOU can help stop global warming

1) Change a light bulb
Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb
can save 130kg of carbon dioxide (CO²) and $50 a year.
Solution: Compact fluorescent light bulbs are available at IKEA: $5-$8 depending on size

2) Drive less, drive a hybrid car or install a compressed natural gas car kit
in your current car so it can run on petrol or compressed natural gas.
Solution: kits are available at www.cng.com.sg for approximately $2000

3) Walk, cycle, carpool or use public transportation more often
public transportation can save 4,200kg of CO² and you $2,500 per year.
Solutions:
The bike boutique will lodge your bike while you work, $ 10 p/d, $150 p/m
http://www.carcoop.com.sg;
http://www.whizzcar.com

4) Recycle More
Save 1090 kg of CO² per year by recycling your household waste
Solutions: Ask for a recycle bin, call NEA 1 800 225 5632 (24 hr. hot line)
Recycled paper is available from A’zone; Tel:65454800; azone@starhub.net.sg

5) Use less hot water
You can save 450kg of CO² and $150 per year.
Solution: Wash your clothes in cold or warm water & dry them under the sun.

6) Avoid products with a lot of packaging
You can save 545 kg of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%
Solution: Reject plastic and paper bags; use a reusable fabric bag, take it with you when you shop. Available at Cold Storage, Carrefour, NTUC from $1-$5

7) Adjust your thermostat
Setting your air-conditioner at 25°C can save 900kg of carbon dioxide (CO²)
and $300 per year without compromising on cooling comfort.
Solution: Only buy an A/C that has an Energy Label; www.nccc.gov.sg/energylabel/aircon.asp

Use an electric fan
You can save 1,400kg of CO² & $500 per year by using electric fan instead of A/C

9) Plant a tree anywhere
A single tree will absorb 1 ton of CO² over its life time
Solution: Go to any nursery at upper Thomson Rd or www.plant-a-tree-today.org

10) Turn off your electronic devices at the main power switch
You can save 250kg of CO² and $100 per year.
Solution: Turn off lights, appliances and electronic equipment, when they are not in use.

AND VERY IMPORTANTLY – Tell a friend to see the movie “An Inconvenient truth”
Golden village tickets range from $6-$9.50.
Do your part! Log on to: http://www.stopglobingwarming.org and www.climatecrisis.net

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SHORT CLIP OF “AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH” MOVIE – I for sure wish to continue my outdoor activities and enjoy nature. Let’s all play our part.

Taken from
The Campaign 4 An Inconvenient Truth (Singapore)
environmental challenge organisation (Singapore)