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Page 1 of 2 Going green has been invading our senses recently. With Live Earth concerts and bags screaming environmental-friendly slogans becoming It bags, it has become rather difficult to sidestep the issue.
Before all of us start to pledge our allegiance to environmental causes, HOOKED thinks it's important that we first try to understand the complexities masked under the word - environmentalism.
The first step in our education was courtesy of the recent Interdisciplinary Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change, organised by NUSSU S.A.V.E (Students Against Violation of the Earth).
This forum was part of the fringe events in preparation for the Green Carnival in NUS on 22nd to 24th October, which has the primary aim of enlightening participants towards the issue of environmentalism through various activities and events.
 The Interdisciplinary Forum, which boasted numerous speakers with impressive credentials, offered well-formulated perspectives regarding the issues of global warming and climate change.
Truth to be told, a forum discussing such a content-heavy issue over a span of four hours seemed rather daunting initially. Surprisingly enough, the speakers managed to ease their audience into a rather relaxed mood while dispensing valuable information with regard to the topics.
Despite the fact that the event was held on 26th September, in the midst of our mid-term break, the lecture theatre was (collective gasp) filled with environmental enthusiasts and a splatter of curious-minds. Who would have thought there was a significant number of environmental activists and activist-wannabes among us who willingly shrugged off the idea of sleeping in during the break?
Read on to find out why those four hours of sacrificed sleep was pretty much worth it.
Speaker 1: Associate Professor Jeffrey Philip, Obbard
Professor Obbard is part of the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute and is an active environmentalist. Shedding light on the issues of global warming and climate change from a geographical perspective, he effectively managed to jolt the audience awake with his frightening statistics, which alluded that Armageddon will not be too far off in the future.
One of the many frightening facts presented was that the Artic ice sheet has seen an astounding decrease of 30% in volume over a period of two years. Definitely an unnerving thought.
Aside from presenting the hard facts and statistics, Professor Obbard drove home the message that humans are to blame for the state of our environmental degradation.
He emphasized that the rapid growth rate of our excessive consumption is a defect that ought to be addressed as soon as possible. This, he feels, could possibly be done through researching sustainable development such as conservation and the development of nuclear energy.
Yes, nuclear energy folks. Desperate times call for desperate measures!
Speaker 2: Dr Scott Valentine
Dr Valentine broached the topic of the causes of global warming and evaluated the alternative methods that have been proposed to curb the degradation of the environment.
Giving a critical analysis peppered with good humor, Dr Valentine managed to highlight the point that global warming is a symptom of excessive consumption that is rampant in present society. Substantiating this argument, he highlighted the statistics that the area of rainforests disappearing each year amounts to an approximate 700 Singapore(s)!
Seriously people, start recycling your paper.
If that wasn't shocking enough, he went on to evaluate the alternative methods advocated by environmentalists and stated that many of these possibilities require a jaw-dropping budget and vast amounts of raw materials.
Leaving many in the audience rather depressed, Dr Valentine's presentation was on hindsight the most frank of the lot because it pinpointed that finding possible replacements for energy is but an excuse for us to continue with our terribly wasteful consumption habits.
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