Eco Knights

We did an interview with Yasmin of Eco Knights last week. Eco Knights is a socio environment organization and they started 2 years ago because of demands on more programs in saving the environment. She started Eco Knights from scratch and the funds all came from her at the very beginning stage. She is really one big environment enthusiast! So much passion and energy! They only have 3 full time people working and the rest are volunteers. Yasmin’s background is in environmental science and she had been working with places like WWF and she’s a technical person.

Their upcoming event which is the Eco Film Feast will be held on 1st and 2nd November, at the National Art Academy. This event is first of its kind in Malaysia. They will be showcasing foreign environmental films and of course the 6 finalists of Eco Film Feast. There will also be companies showcasing their green technology and there will be some cool artist like Mia Palencia and One Buck Short performing that night. This will be a whole day event. For more information, you can check it out at http://www.ecoknights.com

I have learned that people in developed countries are more concern about the environment as compared to people in developing countries. This is because, for people living in developing countries, their priority is different. They care more about their financial status, being able to buy a home, a car and when they get older, they might start thinking about reducing their carbon footprint and treating mother earth better. That is also why, here in Malaysia, people who are at their 40’s tend to care more about the environment. These are the group of people who will learn how to make garbage enzymes, eat organic and recycle. The younger generation is more concern in how much money they make and if they are able to put food on the table for the family, making sure that they can afford to send their kids to the best college in town. There is nothing wrong about this; I think this is just a phase that everyone of us has to go through. My little advice is, you might not be a “green” person that picks up everything you see on the street and recycle them, but, I think everyone can help reduce waste. Don’t simple throw things away. Give it to the needy instead of throwing them straight into the bin. AND minimalism is the KEY.
On the bright side, I found out that there are certain kindergartens here that are starting to teach kids on how to take care of the environment. They actually teach kids how to plant organic plants. We are trying to go to these schools and see what these kids do and if that happens, we will definitely share it here.

Climate Change Initiation Day 2008

I was at the climate change initiation day in Putra Stadium Bukit Jalil last Saturday. It was a real eye opener as I was exposed to things that I never knew. The event started with video snippets from the Inconvenient Truth, Six Degrees Could Change The World and The 11th Hour. In between the snippets they played music video from Linkin Park and Melissa Entheridge .

The talk started with Earth Saving Diet by the funky Dr. Lim. He talks about how we can we help mother earth by having more vegetables (as in green leafy vegetables and not the fake meats that are made from flour) and cut down on meat. I was thinking how by eating vegetables can help save mother earth directly? Apparently, waste from poultry and garbage release a type of gas call methane, and this gas traps 21 times more heat compare to carbon dioxide and it directly contributes to global warming. Next was a talk by Mr. Yahqappu who is an organic farmer.

After the talk we break for lunch. There were people selling organic stuff, recycles bags, environmental DVDs and garbage enzymes. Some might ask what are garbage enzymes. Enzymes - any of numerous proteins or conjugated proteins produced by living organisms and functioning as biochemical catalysts*. In layman’s term, garbage enzyme is basically fermenting kitchen waste to re-use them. And you can make your own garbage enzyme at home by using water, brown sugar and kitchen waste, put all “ingredients” into a bottle/drum, close it, wait for 3 months and taaadaaa…. You will have your very own garbage enzymes! You can use it as household cleaner, use it to wash vegetables, use it as fertilizer and also for body care. It might be gross to a lot of people, but trust me, the people that attended this event are serious about using this enzymes to help reducing global warming. These enzymes have some properties that helps reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. During the break we spoke to some of the participants and here is what they say.

Mr. and Mrs Chan (banker and housewife), came purposely to learn how to make garbage enzymes. They are environmental conscious since a couple of years back. Mrs Chan had been making her own garbage enzymes and they are both here today to see if they are making garbage enzymes the correct way. And apparently, the method she is currently using is the Chinese way and the one that they have at the event is the Western way. I think no matter it’s a Chinese or western way, as long as it helps mother earth it’s a good way!

Mr Prasad and family are from Ceylon. They were born vegetarian and he thinks that the event is very interesting .They are consciously conserving energy to help the environment. They have this practice of minimizing electric and water usage and not using plastic bags. According to Mr. Prasad, he will not drive if there is no need to and would rather walk if the place he wants to go is a short distance away. Whilst Louise and Penny who recently just graduated and working on her first job, were around the area and decided to check out what's the fuss all about.

After going around, we went and surveyed what’s for lunch in the organic food kiosk. I had an organic mushroom burger while Sue-Anne had organic lotus rice. We were required to bring our own utensils and water bottle. Here’s what our food looked like. AND the spoon is made out of recycled paper material.

Well, I don’t think organic is really my type of food, but anyhow, we did not waste food and we finished everything for the love of mother earth!

After the break we went into the stadium again and there was a performance and followed by the talk on garbage enzymes by Dr. Joean Onn.

I see a lot of people who were very gung ho toward the quest to save the environment. But not everyone can turn into a vegetarian overnight. Some are born with it, some wants to do it for their future generation and some might just wake up one day and want to pursue in a mission for saving the earth. For people like me, who was not born a vegan, who does not have the urge for the future generation YET and my mission for waking up in the morning is just to go to WORK, the least I can do is just to take baby steps like, not wasting food , trying to REDUCE plastic bags usage and recycling as much as I can and maybe even being a vegan once a week!