Just because it's difficult to go green doesn't mean that it's not necessary

Some sacrifices are worth making
Budget Tai Tai, Tabitha Wang Today Online 11 Apr 08;

MY FLAT faces an office building and, from my living room, I can see directly into one of the rooms. If I had nothing to do, I could be entertained round the clock with the goings-on in there.

I tell you this not to show how much of a kaypoh (busybody) I am but to illustrate how much electricity is being wasted. The reason I can look straight through the tinted window any time of the day is that the guy who uses the office never switches off the lights.

Half the time, he is not even there. All I can see is the blue light from his computer screen. Sometimes, when I wake up in the wee hours of the morning, I can see flashing lights, indicating that his screensaver has kicked in and he, obviously, has gone home.

I've shown the office to my visiting friends but they don't seem as bothered as I am. "Who cares?" they say. "After all, he's not paying the bill and neither are you."

That's not the point. It doesn't matter who pays the bill — in the end, we all pay. Because to generate that power, we need fossil fuel, which is getting costlier and, more importantly, adding more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

But you see, if I so much as whisper the words "greenhouse gas", I know people's eyes will start rolling. Most Singaporeans don't buy into this concept of saving energy. All right, some switched off their lights for Earth Hour last month, but would they continue to do it long-term?

An ex-colleague used to drive me crazy because she wouldn't switch off the office air-conditioner even if she were the last to leave. When I asked her about it, she looked at me, wide-eyed, and defended herself, saying: "But the air-con needs to be on to cool the computers." Needless to say, she never switched off her computer, either.

I think it's because Singaporeans are spoilt. We are so used to an uninterrupted supply of electricity that we take it for granted.

When was the last time we had a blackout? The only time the electricity went off at night in my flat, the first in more than a decade, we were caught unawares and had to burn aromatherapy candles for light. We didn't even have torches.

It was the most boring and stifling two hours of my life. I couldn't use the computer, watch television or read. As the fans weren't working, I had to make do with a piece of cardboard. To occupy myself, I made a mental list of all the things I was missing — my hi-fi, TV, computer, fan, reading lamps ... the list went on and on.

I even started missing my cake mixer and blender even though I was in no hurry to start baking or make a smoothie at 9 o'clock at night. Just the thought that they weren't available at the flick of a switch was enough to make me nostalgic.

I went down to the coffeeshop for a teh peng and some fresh air, only to find every seat occupied with people who had the same idea. When the lights came on again, everyone scrambled to get home to their beloved air-cons and TVs.

I once spoke to a woman who had lived in Pulau Ubin. Her kampung house was so out of the way it couldn't be connected to the grid. For water, they had a well and for electricity, they relied on a generator — which would run for only two hours at night. It was a throwback to the olden days.

"How did you wash your clothes or mix your cakes?" I asked.

"By hand."

"How did you survive without air-conditioning?"

"We went outside to catch the breeze."

"What did you do at night, seeing as you couldn't read or watch TV?"

She gave me a strange look: "We went to sleep."

Tabitha Wang will celebrate Earth Day by buying more aromatherapy candles.

little not-green-at-all dot

• Earth Day falls on April 22 this year

• In Singapore, close to a fifth of the electricity generated is consumed by households.

• The biggest energy guzzlers are air-conditioners (30 per cent), refrigerators (17 per cent), lighting (10 per cent) and video and computer equipment (10 per cent)