Sustainable Development: a Self Reflection.

Hello there. Today we will be looking at a mirror and do some self reflection.

Everyone's heard of Sustainable Development, or SD for short, of course. If you haven't, no worries, I gotchu with the definition:

"Sustainable development is the idea that human societies must live and meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

- definition by youmatter 

In simpler terms, SD is just keeping your future children in mind when you live your life and fulfill your needs. It can be things as simple as turning the tap water off while your brushing your teeth, or put all recyclable trash in a separate container. As long as you are willing to take that extra step to save your planet, congratulations, you support SD.

What we're reflecting on today is a different matter though. Today we will be discussing on Carbon Footprints, defined as per below: 

"The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community."

- definition by Oxford Languages

Now comes the self reflection. Consider the amount of C02 that's causing climate change and other disasters right now. Have you played your part in reducing those disasters? 

I do not intend to be hypocritical, so I must admit, I haven't done much to reduce my carbon footprints.

I'm proud to say that I have done a bit though. Maybe not a significant amount, but it is there nonetheless. 

One of my efforts to reduce my carbon footprint is swapping cars for public transport. I've been doing this for a few years now, and it might not be a drastic change for the environment, but it has been a drastic change for my health. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who cringe at the thought of exercise, and my friends have had to drag me out on jogs before. But walking to school or office after riding the LRT or KTM has always been therapeutic for my mental health besides building up my stamina. Walking around in the middle of Kuala Lumpur has been part of my childhood for the longest time, so if you live conveniently near a public transportation and have been meaning to save on petrol, here is your sign!

- video of me being stranded in the rain near LRT Masjid Jamek in 2017

Besides that, I can't say that I've played a big role in reducing my carbon footprint besides doing the bare minimum, like recycling or turning off the lights or saying no to plastic bags. All those, I feel, are just part of the things we all have to take responsibility for. However, upon researching for content in this blog, I stumbled upon a few great articles on how to reduce our carbon footprints like this, this, and this one. Turns out, you can also calculate exactly how big of a footprint you're leaving on this site.  Pretty cool, huh? 

To sum it all up, even though Malaysia isn't that high up in the list of biggest C02 emission list, we should all start bucking up to save our dear planet Earth, before it's too late. Sure, scientists have found other hospitable planets that we can live on, but do we really want to live like the humans in Wall-E?