What will it take?

This question has been on my mind the past few days....what will it take for human beings to really wake up and see what is happening on this planet? 

Firstly, we don't treat ourselves very well, so needless to say we don't treat other people well, and this translates to how we treat the planet and our resources. It is not news anymore that our over consumption of whatever resources on this planet is depleting. The latest news is that we do need another planet or two to sustain us by 2035 if we continue to over consume. We are eating/drinking/using ourselves out of existence. Yet when I look around me, I see that people still seem oblivious to what is really happening.

I go to the food courts and I see the amount of waste generated because people have ordered too much food. People are throwing away good furniture replacing them with more 'updated' looks. Just two weeks ago, as I was walking by the shower booth alongside the swimming pool, water was running continously and no one even bothered to turn it off! Not the users of the pool, nor the security guards doing their rounds around the estate. 

I asked Toby this morning, 'Do you think people will wake up and take more responsibility for what is going on in the world, if all of a sudden, we have just dark clouds looming over our skies continously, with little or no sunlight? Or some global natural catastrophe shakes the entire planet leaving millions homeless, like those doom and gloom hollywood blockbusters" Toby said, "I don't know if that is even enough to wake people up." 

And I realised that what he said is quite true. Most people live in a self centred reality, thinking only of, "how will this benefit me?" or "why should I take responsibility for this or that, if other people are not doing their part as well?" In some Asian cultures, this can be seen as something stupid to do!

I for one, am not and have not been a very obedient child of ethnic Chinese parents. For most of my life, I have gone against the grain of my father's wishes. And I also believe that this desire to break out of limited thinking and ways of being have helped me to see my reality beyond self centredness. I appreciate culture and tradition, I believe that they are important. However, the limited thinking in many Asian cultures I am speaking of has nothing or little to do with real culture and tradition, it is just fear with fear based types of thinking like, "don't lose out to other people" or "don't be stupid to do all the work".

I believe that we all need to break out of old ways of thinking for real transformation to take place. Yes, the Singapore government does a good job of taking care of its citizens, but we all have individual responsibilities too in how we wish to shape the world. We are not children, and the government is not our parent telling us what to do. We should aim to co-create and play our part in countless ways such as:

1. recycle

2. consume less of everything (we eat far too much for our good anyway!)

3. reduce buying

4. reuse things

5. plant trees because it doesn't cost much but the returns are supernormal! (this is something we do every month as individuals and as a company, see below for details*)

6. eat more healthily

7. stop buying things/food items from producers that promote child labour (many of your chocolate brands out there use cocoa from cocoa farms that use children as young as 5!), sweat shops (underpaid workers), cruel practices (abused animals for your leather goods and meat), use of chemicals on footwear, clothes, food (as seen in the contamination of milk and eggs in China) The list is endless....so cultivate greater awareness of what is going on in the world.

These are just 7 things so far that can make a difference now and today. Do we really have to wait till the final days of destruction before we take responsibility?

Ask yourself what will it take?

* Plant trees with ecolibris for as little as USD1 a tree. Visit: www.ecolibris.net 

If you're interested, calculate your carbon footprint here: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx