Ironic Enviromentalist

first of all, I have to apologize for leaving out some names in the previous post. in the heated moment at the time of writing, obviously i wasn't thinking very clearly, and left out some friends who have certainly given me some flak for it. well i just gotta say, if you're my good friend, sure you'd forgive me for leaving you out?

was sitting in my Chinese politics class last night when an obvious irony struck me. The professor was talking about nationalism then, and how in times of crisis, political leaders often resort to fanning the flames of nationalism to distract the public from domestic issues, as well as garner political support in a short period of time, something crucial in most democratic regimes, where policies are mostly self-serving and aimed at maintaining office than the long term welfare of the state. As my American classmates snigger at the examples raised, such as China, Taiwan and Japan, I wonder whether they actually notice that they are laughing at themselves too; the call to arms "for democracy" by President George W. Bush has stirred feelings of nationalism not seen in this land since the days of the American Revolution, masking other obvious domestic problems such as the management of the welfare system, to rising medical costs, to the lack of control of greenhouse gas emissions, to the shady internal workings of the current Administration, as well as the low standards of public education. Many other important issues loom on the horizon, yet time and again the war on terror dominates front pages, banishing other issues close to the hearts of the Americans to oblivion.

Attending Former Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore’s presentation on campus around 3 weeks ago has got to be one of the most definitive things I’ve done in a long while. His presentation is nothing but a plea to the civil consciousness of the American public, to educate them about the undeniable fact that carbon dioxide emissions are one of the world’s leading contributors to global warming, a fact taught to us Singaporeans in Secondary School, but apparently deemed by the American Congress as “unscientific”. The stunning visuals and facts presented whetted my appetite for more. For the past few weeks I’ve devoted a fair share of time and effort into researching this problem, and the more I discover, the more guilt I feel about not knowing more about the extent of the damage we have inflicted onto the environment before. It really is time we take action. If you’re reading this, I urge you to find out more about this issue, and how we all can take necessary actions to prevent further damage from occurring.