BP Climate Change Essay Competition

e-mail: bpccessay@se1.bp.com
Closing date: 13 September 2007

Climate Change – How we, as

individuals, can make a difference

(Grandma and I)

Name: Yong Bang Ming

Class, School: Lower Six B2, SMK Tinggi Klang

Mycard number: 890427-05-5535

Home address: 32 Jalan Tenang 25/54 Taman Sri Muda, 40400 Shah Alam.

HSE Tel: 03-51222600

H/P: 016-3575165

Email addresses: ybm@mail.com, yonghc88@streamyx.com

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 Climate Change – How we, as individuals, can make a difference

(Grandma and I)

By Yong Bang Ming, Lower Six B2, SMK Tinggi Klang

It was the most poignant moment of my life as Grandma feebly grasped the back of

my hand. I spontaneously turned my hand to clasp her palm, and kissed the back of

her scrawny hand. I had never done this to anyone else before, having just gleaned

this gesture of respect and love from a Malay friend who used to kiss his Chinese

Grandma’s hand thereby winning a special place in her heart. I seemed to notice a

warm glow in my Grandma’s emaciated face, though her eyes were sunken with tears

welling in them.

She knew the end was near. Over the last six months, her weight had dramatically

fallen from 48 to 29 kg. Two days later, she passed away of complications induced by

heartburn.

I now regret for not having spent more time with her when she was alive. Perhaps if I

could make her happier, she could have lived longer. Now that she is no more, there is

nothing else I can do to show her my gratitude, except reliving nostalgic memories of

her placid disposition, from snuggling up to her as a toddler learning to crawl and walk

under her watchful eyes, learning to talk at her knees to growing up years under her

caring and compassionate guidance.

Just as Grandma's rapid weight loss was a harbinger of her end of life, all the

unmistakable signs of rapid climate change in our troubled planet bode ill for all forms

of lives on earth analogous to a canary in the coal mine which has stopped chirping
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and singing.

Climate change is a recent scary phenomenon of human induced greenhouse effects,

generally believed to be caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil

fuels and other greenhouse gases, which got trapped in the atmosphere and absorbed

solar energy thereby raising the world’s temperature.

There has been a dramatic increase in the world’s temperature in recent years. There

is no question that the last five to ten years have been the hottest period of the last

century, with 1998 and 2005 being the hottest years ever recorded. Global warming

led to the collapse of colossal ancient ice shelves in the Arctic and Antarctic, some the

size of 11,000 football fields, to the drying up of great inland seas and rivers, and to

the potential extinction of polar bears.

Closer to home, in December 2006 to January 2007, the warming of sea waters,

resultant evaporation and subsequent torrential downpours attributed to Typhoon Utor

led to horrendous floods in Segamat and Kota Tinggi in Johore, along with Pahang,

Malacca and Negeri Sembilan. Nearly 100,000 people had to be evacuated to rescue

centers. The storm caused damages estimated at RM 1.5 billion, making it the costliest

natural disaster in Malaysian history.

Abnormal rainfall attributable to the same storm also caused flooding in Indonesia

where an estimated 400,000 people were displaced at the peak of the flooding as of

29 December 2006.

Our own sufferings enable us to empathize with the unfortunate victims of Hurricane

Katrina in America, another consequence of global warming in August 2005. The storm
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caused damages estimated at USD 81 billion, making it the most expensive natural

disaster in U.S. history.

In the past, as far as I could recall during the last 15 years, Grandma was cheerful and

never like this. Her health condition during her last days was serious cause for my

concern, notwithstanding the fact that she was 78 years old. I was not ready to accept

the fact that she was about to die.

In order to understand if there is any cause for concern over why the world is now like

this, we need to study past patterns of the world’s climate. Planet earth has seen

better days and is now 4.5 billion years old. Are we ready to accept the hypothesis that

it is going to lie down and die of old age?

No. That is too simplistic. Sir Winston Churchill once said “The farther backward you

can look, the farther forward you are likely to see."

Consistent with Newton’s first law of motion on inertia, the pattern of the earth’s orbit

around the sun would remain unchanged evermore had it been the only planet in our

solar system.

However, admittedly 8 other planets are also orbiting around the sun in our solar

system within our galaxy, the Milky way which also moves outwards indefinitely in the

Universe consistent with the Big Bang theory concerning the creation of the Universe.

All these movements, particularly those of huge planets like Jupiter and Saturn do

exert their gravitational pulls on our tiny planet earth, thereby disturbing the pattern of

its orbit, causing the Milankovitch cycles named after the great Serbian engineer and

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mathematician, Milutin Milanković. These cycles refer to the collective effect of

changes in the earth’s movements upon its climate, and explain the ice age theory.

The world has been going through the Milankovitch cycles, 100,000 years cycles of

extremely cold glaciations period – the ice age -- between warmer shorter interglacial

periods of 20,000 years during which life as we know it became possible. Hence, we

are now living during one of these interglacial periods, which started about 9600 B.C.

Human civilization began during this period. Hence, it is possible that there had been

many earlier civilizations before ours.

Under normal conditions, to wit pre-industrial era, we may be on the brink of the next

ice age due in less than 9,000 years. However, because of global warming, the next

ice age may be totally canceled, which is good for our great, great, great... grand

children, that is if we ourselves survived abnormal climate change of which developing

countries including Malaysia, and developed countries including America, the most

powerful country on earth have had the first tastes in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

We need to act now to save ourselves within this century first before we can even think

of saving our future generations thousands of years down the road, or rather river,

because our children's grandchildren may not be around to maintain our ancestry

lines.

By now, I have learned that doing too little too late may lead to regrets.

Now that we have had the first bitter tastes of abnormal climate change; have learned

about the earth's ancient climatology to realize that the global warming we are

experiencing now is not due to climate forcing resulting from Milankovitch cycles; and
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have identified carbon dioxide emissions from human activities as the root cause of

the global warming problem, it is time to change our habits before it is too late, else we

will surely regret our inaction.

Now, having laid out the background story, we are presumably well-informed enough

to answer this poser -- “Climate change – How we, as individuals, can make a

difference”.

Brace yourself for an anti-climax.

The simple answer is “There is nothing we can do to make a difference as of now! Not

until the United State of America, the biggest culprit exercises responsibility and

leadership in tackling climate change, hopefully after December 2007 in Bali.”

The above answer is premised on the presumption that the status quo is maintained,

that is the world's worst culprits of global warming, including USA, China, India and

Australia are not bound by any International legally binding commitments to address

the global warming problem by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other

greenhouse gases, and there are no enforcement of penalties and consequences for

failing to comply with agreements signed.

Of course, there are lots of things we Malaysians can do with the good intention of

alleviating the global warming problem. But without a centrally controlled mechanism

involving the government, all our efforts will be nothing more than futile practices. And

even with stringent government controls and enforcements to the extent that all

Malaysians are forced to use bicycles, horses and bullock carts, all factories which

emit greenhouse gases are forced to shut down, nothing will be achieved if the big
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polluters in foreign lands are not committed to address climate change.

In order for our efforts at mitigating global warming problem to make a meaningful

difference, governments of countries across the whole world need to be involved. It

must be a concerted global team effort to address the global problem, much like fire-

fighting.

Governments of most countries force their motorists to put on safety belts and

motorcyclists to wear crash helmets under penalty of fines to produce desirable results

in lowering statistics of deaths and injuries from accidents. Likewise, governments of

all countries, both developing and developed countries must force their populations

under penalties to refrain from emitting unacceptable amounts of carbon dioxide into

the atmosphere in order to mitigate global warming.

With the support of the government machineries throughout the world in place, we as

individuals of the world may then adopt the following measures in a concerted effort to

make a difference in mitigating adverse consequences of climate change: -

● informing against polluters of the environments

● changing our habits in traveling,

● optimizing our consumption of energy at home and at work

Informing against polluters of the environments

Very often, like being subjected to second-hand smoke in a pub, we have to bear with

polluters of the environment who belch out greenhouse gases. We have experienced

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being choked by noxious black exhaust fumes from vehicles in front of us while on the

road. We have had to bear with haze due to burning before replanting by plantation

companies and we have had to bear with discharge of pollutants into the atmosphere

from factories.

A government initiated system of punishment and reward may be able to solve the

above problems. Penalize the culprits by imposing fines which would then be used to

reward the informers whose identities must be kept confidential.

Informers may SMS the registration numbers of offending vehicles to a certain number

which would in turn broadcast them to relevant traffic police on duty to nab the culprits

on the spot. Cheques will thence be paid out immediately to registered owners of the

numbers of the hand-phone captured by the computerized system.

Rewarding informers who inform against corporate culprits handsomely after imposing

substantial monetary penalties against their directors or business owners may

motivate the likes of activist Erin Brokovich and encourage the emergence of

environmentally conscious individuals.

Changing our habits in traveling

Certain changes in our preferences and actions need to be self-motivated. I have

observed that parking lots of most LRT and KTM stations have always been full, which

is a good sign. Traveling to and back from work using the light rail transportation

system and commuters is more relaxing and environment-friendly.

The aviation industry is a great culprit of greenhouse gas emission. We should only fly

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if really necessary. Instead of spending our holidays overseas, how about spending

our holidays at local places of interest, like the Sungkai’s Hotspring, Gopeng’s Gua

Tempurong or Tapah’s waterfall, among numerous others.

We shall use the bicycles or walk instead of relying on automobiles, if possible to cut

down our contribution to greenhouse gas emission.

Optimizing our consumption of energy at home and at work

We shall use energy efficient electrical appliances, including light bulbs or fluorescent

tubes at home and at work. The government may help by banning the import of

inefficient electrical appliances, which waste energy, and encourage the use of

renewable resources such as solar and wind energy for driving appliances we use

everyday, to wit water heaters and ventilation systems, etc.

Change course we must

We have no choice but to change our habits collectively to make a difference in

tackling climate change. We must convince our governments to support our worldwide

concerted efforts. Some governments are like the captain of a battleship who growled

to another party on dangerous collision course in a thick fog “I am a battleship.

Change course 20º”. Thereupon came the reply “I am a lighthouse”. The captain

commanded his battleship to change course right away.

(1998 words)

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REFERENCES

Andrea Thompson, Foxnews.com Friday, September 07, 2007. Global Warming May Cancel
Next Ice Age.

Andrea Thompson, Foxnews.com Friday, September 07, 2007. Human Activity Redrawing
Maps of World.

Associated Press. Saturday, September 08, 2007. Report: Two-Thirds of World's Polar Bears
Will Be Gone by 2050.

CBC News Last Updated: Thursday, December 28, 2006 | 6:39 PM ET. Arctic ice shelf collapse
poses risk: expert

Climate Action Network – International. C/o US Climate Action Network, 1326 14th St. NW
Washington, DC 20005, USA. Welcome to CAN-International

DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer, Physorg.com. NOAA Affirms Predictions of Sea Ice
Loss

Mathew Carr, Bloomberg.com. Developed Countries Should Cut Emissions 40% by 2020
(Update1)

Michael Pollick, Conjecture Corporation. WiseGEEK. What does It Mean to be a Canary in a

Coal Mine?

NOAA Satellite and Information Service. National Climatic Data Center. The Beginning

NOAA Satellite and Information Service. National Climatic Data Center. How do we study
“Global Warming?”

NOAA Satellite and Information Service. National Climatic Data Center. Paleoclimatic Data
Before 2000 Years Ago

NOAA Satellite and Information Service. National Climatic Data Center. The Mid-Holocene
"Warm Period"

NOAA Satellite and Information Service. National Climatic Data Center. Weather, Climate,
and Paleoclimatology

Ranjith Menon. Successful Change Management. Frank Koch in Proceedings, the magazine of
the Naval Institute

The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Climate and society. Intro to Climate Change

Web sponsored by grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Public health impact.
Research on the grant concluded December, 2000
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Wikipedia. 2006-2007 Malaysian floods. 2006-2007_Malaysian_ floods.htm.

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