New Youtube channel and blog updates
After discovering that I actually owned the “larryau” account on Youtube–having used “larryaudotcom” as a sorry substitute for over a year now–I’ve re-uploaded my videos to my “new” account. For those interested in checking the availability of their most-used user name across social media sites, namechk is a great tool to do just that. I like to keep a monopoly on larryau.
In the process of uploading old and new video clips (test shots for my new Canon HF20), I stumbled on this old ad that I made with two other friends for a Roots and Shoots PSA on biodiversity during Earth Week in April 2008. Enjoy its amateurishness.
Being bombarded with college apps, exams and getting my senior project started has left me with very little time to update this blog. I’ll be making changes to it in the coming days and getting it back on track. I should be done by this Sunday (no promises, though).
A take on China and climate change
In recent years, the Chinese government has realized that the long-term sustainability of their economies and societies is closely linked to the state of its environment. Recognizing this, the governments have increasingly geared their policy towards “sustainable development”.
While this is true, the Chinese government’s attitude towards environmental protection remains to be that of “wait and see”. Opportunities of remedying the disastrous effects of decades of unregulated industrialization are being lost, again and again, as the government sits back and allow local officials to take bribes from factory owners to overlook their egregious actions.
Grassroots organizations in China can only do so much to effect change because of its political climate. Thus, there is need for the international organizations and governments to lobby for China to take a more active role in protecting its environment.
A great example of this is the Loess Plateau (featured in John Liu’s documentary, Hope in a Changing Climate, that I watched last month), China was able to transform an arid wasteland with an area equivalent to the size of France, that had been the victim of over farming, to an area full of lush vegetation. This was done possible with the help of the World Bank and other environmental organizations.
The Loess Plateau’s transformation is a model for soil scientists seeking to rehabilitate areas ravaged by over farming and deforestation. However, foreign governments and international organizations should also learn from the Loess Plateau and use it as a model for cooperation with China.
In dealing with China, international organizations and foreign governments need to be sensitive to the nationalistic sentiments of the Chinese government, that is highly protective of actions it deems to be intrusions of its sovereignty. They need to provide assistance and guidance, but not dictate or pontificate to China “what you need to do”.
China is a budding nation trying to find its place on the world’s stage—flirting with the idea of international leadership. Give China opportunities of leadership and let them shine. Only through soft-handed dealings and gentle coaxing will an international agreement on climate change be made with China.
This was something that I wrote quickly for a friend working at Klimaforum 09 in Copenhagen who needed input on grassroots views on China and climate change. An article written by her can be read here.
Working on video of UNICEF’s Charity Run
Last Sunday, I participated (ran, jogged, walked… luckily, not crawled) in UNICEF Hong Kong’s Charity Run. I filmed parts of the run for a video I’ll make with Animoto, a free online web based video editing application. I should have the video ready soon.
Meanwhile, check out this UNICEF promotional video I did back in August for our school’s club marketplace. The audio quality isn’t that good, but I think it’s still cute.
Photos from Blog Action Day
Sorry for the late update, but here are the photos that Jennifer Ho took during Blog Action Day at HKIS.
Blog Action Day at HKIS
Unhampered by the onslaught of upcoming tests, projects and band concerts, a group of dedicated student bloggers came together to blog on climate change for Blog Action Day. Although the sun shone brightly and they would much rather be outside, frolicking about, they chose to barricade themselves inside a dimly lit room. Here are the fruits of their labor.
Climating Season by Stephen
BAD: Climate Change by Jennifer Hui
Yes, I’m blogging about the climate by Tsu Li
Blog Action by Raisha
The completely anti-climatic climate post by Thomas
It’s gettin’ hot in here, so.. by James
Carbon Sequestration May Not Be the Best Idea by Kenny
Let’s Save the World by Dhruv and Jennifer Ho
It’s getting hotter and angrier in here by Larry
Blog Action Day by Jessica
This is an incomplete listing of the posts from today. If you have a post that’s not on here, email me at larryau@gmail.com.
It’s getting hotter and angrier in here
This post was written for Blog Action Day: a day where bloggers worldwide blog about a single issue, climate change this year, in hopes of raising awareness and stimulating global discussion.
Increased ice cream sales causes an increase in violent crimes. This example of a logical fallacy is frequently used statistic classes to demonstrate the effect of a lurking variable. Although violent crimes increase when ice cream sales increase, this does not imply causation.
What’s lurking is the variable of temperature. During summer months, ice cream sales and violent crimes increase, because, as day to day observations suggest, under hotter temperature, people become more easily agitated and irritable.
What does this have to do with climate change?
According to the report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, global atmospheric temperature will rise between 1.1 to 6.4°C by the end of the century. One of the lead factors in this increase in temperature is the increase of greenhouse gas emissions.
More locally in Hong Kong, a study conducted by the Hong Kong Observatory concluded that between 1947 to 2008, average temperature increased at a rate of .16°C per decade, with a rise of .23°C in the last decade. Earlier this month, the HKO announced that last September was Hong Kong’s hottest in 40 years.
But are people really more violent when it’s hotter?
Think about the last time you were stuck in a poorly air conditioned room. You were sweating and fidgety–wondering when you could get the hell out of there. Maybe you weren’t thinking about killing somebody, but you were annoyed and pissed off.
Psychologists have explained that higher temperatures cause greater stress to people, which makes them more susceptible to violence. Research done in this field came up with a model for ambient temperature and violent crime, with it showing a positively correlated relationship. Because of this, there are more prison riots during summer months and regions with hotter climates have more violent crimes.
What will we fight over?
Perhaps what is even more alarming is that climate change can cause conflicts and wars over water and food shortages, population displacement from rising sea levels and energy resources. A study by David Zhang from the University of Hong Kong found that between 1000 to 1911, changes in agriculture production brought by climate change “drove China’s historical war-peace cycles”.
Here’s probably the cutest and scariest video you’ll ever see on global warming that sums everything up nicely:
So as global atmospheric temperature begins to rise, we will become more aggressive. Combined with the other conflict-inducing effects of climate change, the future will be filled with more hot-headed people, with more things to fight over. Thus, we must take a multilateral and international approach in solving the problems that arise from climate change, and create an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation, with emphasis placed on diplomacy and international conflict resolution.
New Blog: Tech, Service and Advocacy
As part of my technology graduation credit, I’ll be writing about the applications of technology in service and advocacy. The blog will be updated about every two weeks or so. I’ll also be working on several projects, with different service and advocacy groups at school, that will tie into this theme throughout the year.
This Thursday, October 15, I’ll be organizing Blog Action Day at school with our chapter of Roots and Shoots. We’ve invited students and members of other service clubs to come spend an hour after school with us to blog about climate change. We’ll be providing them with laptops and helping them set up their own blogs. After posting, we’ll collect the links of everyone’s posts and publish them here.
To learn more about Blog Action Day, watch this video:
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