Last time this year I was in Tibet.Local temperature climbed to 25 and 28 degrees Centigrade in early autumn at an altitude of 3800 meters.A Lhasa environmental official has acknowledged that global warming is becoming more evident in the last 38 years since she was posted to the ecological fragile Tibetan Highland.
Last month, I was in Shenzhen, where local investors and factory owners have to live with frequent electricity stoppage and water rationing.Power outage due to over demand has led to daily threats of production suspension.Irrigation for the City¡¯s urban green space has to be restricted.
China estimated that natural disasters including droughts, floods, hurricanes and landslides have incurred an annual economic loss of over RMB$100 billion affecting 40 million hectares of farmlands and over 200 million people.
In Hong Kong, a mid summer rain of hailstone has raised a public alert to the extreme weather occurrence and potential global climate threats closer to home.
Climate threat is scary.But living in denial is scarier.In a runaway society, we sleepwalk through our lives.Often we let our insecurities to be masked by our day-to-day obsession with material consumption and quick profits.Government cares to legislate all citizens to wear seat belts for their own protection against car accidents but fail to formulate measures to protect same citizens against climate threats.Denial is enemy of the people.Complacency is betrayal of the future.
Hong Kong is located in low-lying delta area vulnerable to natural disasters and potential sea level rise.Elevated temperature not only increases electricity demand for cooling and carbon emission, but also increases cases of heat stress and in respiratory and communicable disease.Dengue fever is on the rise.Hong Kong is not only reliant on fossil fuels and has a large energy footprint with one of the highest per capita energy consumption levels in the world.It would take 180000 sq. km of tree planting equal to180 times the size of Hong Kong to absorb all the carbon emission produced each year!
In comparison to other developed countries, Hong Kong lacks legislation, strategies, incentives and education on climate response with minimal commitment on renewable energy, electricity saving and efficiency.With no dedicated energy department, responsibility for energy policy resides with many different government departments resulting in fragmented control and lack leadership on sustainable energy planning.Hong Kong¡¯s permitted return of the power companies to invest in additional generating capacity provides no incentive to reduce energy demand.In essence, Hong Kong is ill prepared for the climate crisis.Equally, it is ill prepared to assume global climate responsibility.
However Hong Kong, as a world-class financial hub, is well placed to leverage the market force to implement its global climate responsibility through environmental financing, climate responsive banking, green procurement policy and ¡°no regret¡± direct investment in China.There is urgent need to set cross-border targets and joint measures for greenhouse gas reduction.
Developed nations need to set an example and lead the way out of climate fatalism.United States¡¯ refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is a letdown.The emperor is not wearing any clothes!War thirst countries¡¯ indiscriminate bombing and military incursions are destabilizing the weather and the ecology.Global players should strive for fair trade and not just free trade, should pledge to fair share and not just eco-terror.It is time to break the chains and work for bio-security not just national security.The world needs sustainability pathfinders and not ¡°terminators¡±.
Children are the first and greatest casualties of the world¡¯s environmental crisis.
They are the first to go hungry when the rain fails and the land dries.
We need to respond with care and sensitivity to our children¡¯s concerns about their world and their future.We need to show our children that we believe in the future.One of the most important ways is having the courage to talk and spread the truth about the threat of the world that they inherit.
Normalcy in an abnormal century
It is time to get back to the basics and preach the language of values and rediscover old wisdom made relevant in a very different age.It is time to reclaim forgotten truth and foster the sense of humanity.When larger society¡¯s refusal to face its cannibalism of our planet makes the individual responsibility even more important.Live simply so that others could simply live.
Beyond Despair
There is forgotten truth in this American Indian wisdom:
¡°When the last tree is cut,
When the last river is poisoned,
When the last fish is caught,
You will discover that you can¡¯t eat money.¡±
Our future depends on the changes we made and the chains we break.
It is all about living the truth.
Climate Threat Forgotten Truth |
Mrs. Mei Ng |
United Nations Global 500 Laureate Board Member Friends of the Earth (HK) September 12, 2006 |
