Sadhu to those all over the world who participated in Earth Hour. May all be mindful of the importance of caring for the Earth from hour to hour! During Earth Hour last night, I was teaching a class on the Amitabha Sutra at Kong Meng San. When the lesson began at 7pm, I flashed a Powerpoint slide with the logo above and said, ‘Earth Hour is from 8.30 – 9.30pm tonight. Now… what shall we do? (The class giggled a little.) I thought of switching off the power (lights and air-con), to teach by candlelight… but decided not to (because I use Powerpoint to illustrate many lesson pointers and many in the class take notes!) So, please remember – you owe the Earth one hour (of not consuming electricity) after you leave this class! (The class laughs.)’
Next, I reminded the class that even as we aspire to be reborn in a wonderful Pureland elsewhere, we should not shirk from our responsibilities of taking care of this world. We should still do what we can to make this world a Pureland, difficult as it may be. Karmically speaking, it is impossible to be reborn in a better world if one deliberately neglects or destroys this world. Also, as taught in the Amitabha Sutra, we require much merits to aid birth in Pureland. And taking care of this world (in terms of its environment) is one of the indispensable ways to create such merits! Amituofo!
Candlelight isn’t exactly very environmental friendly too…
Actually Earth Hour is mostly about raising awareness. The act of turning off the lights does not results in any reduction in CO2 production.
Power generators produce more electricity than what is actually required. Unused electrictiy is simply “earth-away”. Earth Hour may reduce electricity use (by 1%??) during the 1 hr, but if power generators does not reduce energy output, the same amount of CO2 are still going to be produced.
I guess what we do on the daily basis could help to save the Earth. Guess it is not easy and need lots of reminders or support from each other … There are many things we can do, like going green, going vegetarian.
Like the post on ‘Our Wants Vs Our Needs’ is a good pointer.
I mean, if we are not vegetarian/vegan yet, just don’t over consume on the meat which our body don’t need at all, go meatless more often.
Encourage other to go meatless more often. Shian had wrote a very good article to Straits Time last year, June I think on “Vegetarianism can help in food and climate crises’
Yes, Earth Hour is more for raising awareness, but that’s exactly what we need to do first. From a change of mind, actions thereafter hopefully change… in terms of our everyday habits.
I think this is the letter Crystal was referring to: http://moonpointer.com/index1.php?itemid=2265 😉
Yes, yes, yes, this is the one … 🙂
Before I forget again(forgotten for 2 mths already), I wanted to say a BIG “THANK YOU†to you. You know, you have a post in old moonpointer on global warming and vegetarianism with lots of links from established sites/organisations.
There is a vegetarian boy doing a school research study with 3 non-vegetarian classmates (= 3 non-veg family). One of them asked, global warming and Vegetarianism ????
Lucky got your post (even I haven’t read any of the links) recommended to that little poor vegetarian boy, to use that to answer …
Great job! Thanks for sharing on how you shared the links ^_^