Target big-time polluters, not me with my old bulbs

Reggie J, The New Paper 4 Dec 08;

CLIMATE change is worrying and I wouldn't want to belittle the issue of global warming - but sometimes, I wonder if much of what we are told is a lot of hot air.

China relies on carbon for 70 per cent of its energy and its economy is growing fast. So is India's. They and the US account for much of the carbon pollution in the world.

So anybody imagining that it makes a difference if a housewife in Toa Payoh replaces her light bulbs with low-energy ones might just as well throw a sugar cube into the water around the Marina Barrage to make it sweeter.

Take a look at any big city at night. Even our own. Office buildings are lit up like Christmas trees, advertising hoardings are illuminated to be seen from afar, and street lights burn every few metres from one another.

Yet we are made to feel guilty for leaving the television on stand-by.

So tight is the grip of environmental consciousness that in some countries, the old incandescent bulbs are being banned.

Presumably, the authorities imagine the poor can just change to the more expensive low-energy bulbs overnight?

I am not a supporter of nuclear energy. I am pleased that Singapore's small size may more or less rule out nuclear energy being a feasible alternative energy option, and it will seek to use more solar power.

It's amazing that we are not getting more out of the 12 hours of sunlight we are blessed with every day.

More importantly, to get anywhere close to solving the energy problem, there's a need to motivate both industry and the public to think of the economics when buying equipment or using energy.

World leaders will have to recognise that this is a global problem. Either we act together or we fry together.

But don't hold your breath that the biggest polluters are going to be persuaded by that argument any time soon.

# The writer is a former Singaporean marketing professional.