April 21 2019
Dr. Richard Ng is assisted by Ms Koghi in planting a tree
200
interactors from various schools in Ipoh converged at SMK Main Convent, Ipoh,
Perak to participate in the Environment Awareness Camp. The event was organised
by the Interact Club of SMK Main Convent led by its President, Soneeta Kaur and Community Service Director, Dharushini Subramaniam. The
interactors taking part in the event include SMK Main Convent, SMK Anderson,
SMK St. Michael, SMK Anglo Chinese School, SMK Perak Girls School and SMK Methodist
Girls School.
Group photo with interactors who took part in the separation of recyclables
The
event was graced by Mr. Francis Martin who is the incoming President of Ipoh
Rotary Club. Presents in the event include guest speaker Associate Professor
Dr. Richard Ng, Chairman of KOHIJAU and Ipoh City Watch and wife Mdm Tina Leong,
an alumni of SMK Main Convent. Others include teacher advisers Miss Koghilawati
and Mdm Tee Sim Mei and Parent Teacher Adviser representative, Mr. S. S.
Pannir.
From left: Pannir, Dr. Richard Ng, Mdm Tina Leong, Mr, Francis Martin, Ms Koghi, Mdm Tee, Dharushini Subramaniam and Ms Soneeta Kaur
The
highlight of the event is a talk on “Global Warming and What We Could Do to Save
Our Planet” by Associate Professor Dr. Richard Ng, Chairman of Ipoh City
Watch/KOHIJAU. In his talk, Dr. Richard Ng spoke about World Earth Day which is
celebrated throughout the world in 192 countries and participated by over 1
billion people each year on April 22. The theme of this year’s World Earth Day
is “Protect Our Species’, which gels well with the camp’s theme “When we heal
the Earth, we heal ourselves.”
One for the album. Group photo with all the participants of Environment Awareness Camp
Dr.
Ng reminded all the interactors of the objective of the camp and their
responsibilities to help ensure we do something to protect the Earth and all
the living species. This can be achieved if we reduce garbage especially
plastics from going to the landfill as plastics take more than 500 years to
decompose. Methane gas released from plastics will cause temperature to rise 20
times higher than CO2, thus affect the greenhouse gas composition which absorb
the infrared radiation and increase global warming.
He
advised all the interactors to embrace the 3R culture of Reduce, Reuse and
Recycle in order to help reduce carbon footprint which is a measure of the
greenhouse gas. He also gave tips on how interactors can reduce carbon
footprint by saying no to plastics such as plastic straws, utensils, food
packaging and shopping bags. He advised the student to inform their parents to
bring their own reusable bags when doing shopping. Plastic bags from the shops should
not be used to pack garbage but instead they should use oxo-biodegradable
plastic bags which can decompose at a shorter period.
Besides
practicing 3R, he urges everyone present to plant trees as tree will absorb
carbon dioxide and realease oxygen to balance the greenhouse gas. By recycling
1,000 tonnes of papers we can help save 18 trees from being chopped down in the
forest.
According
to Miss Soneeta who is the Interact Club President, the event was a success
with participation from about 200 fellow interactors. They were fortunate to
have Dr. Richard Ng, who is an award winning NGO social activist in climate
change as their guest speaker for their environment programme to help them
understand the importance of healing the earth by protecting the environment. By
doing that we can become satisfied and heal our pain through reducing the
suffering by others including all living things on this planet.
After the talk, all
the invited guests and interactors plant trees within the school compound
followed by plogging and other upcycling activities.
