2,000th visitor

Another random post, the 2,000th visitor that came to my blog since the day I added the counter goes to.... non other than, Lydie! =D. Congratulations!

And yeah, there's still people coming in from the Home Alone 5 post. hahha. Mostly from the States.

Anyways, I read this from my cousin blog. Quite a good piece of writing. =)

Title:

The World Gone Mad

Dated: June 9, 2008

Hurricane Katrina. Tsunami in 2006. Sichuan earthquake. Cyclone in Myanmar. Droughts. Floods. Typhoons. One disaster after another, Mother Nature has launched an onslaught.

The world today is one that is crazy, dangerous, and unstable. Just look at the prices of oil; it nearly doubled in 2 years. Costing about USD 70 per barrel in 2006, it's now roughly USD139 per barrel. And as of now, I'm not so sure that the number has not risen.

Maybe the world's finally gone mad, and it's at its breaking point. I mean, 10 years ago you wouldn't have seen the possibility of this ever happening. I think it's the Earth's way of saying "Look, I've had enough of you destroying and plundering me. I need a break." Before anyone protests, please just take a look at what we are doing.

Factories release untreated waste into water in some countries, polluting the water and rendering it "dead". Life cannot survive in these waterways, and the people have one less source of clean water. Come'on, how hard is it to install something to treat that water?
For small savings and gains now, you harm everything else and would have to pay the price later. Of all the water on earth we just have 3% freshwater, and 2% is even locked in ice caps. How much of that 1% do you want to pollute before your eyes are open?

Then there's the greenhouse effect. We're releasing so much greenhouse gases in the air, the earth's warming up and the polar ice caps are shrinking each year. Yeah, I know that the 2% are locked there, and yippie, we have more freshwater! Wrong. Releasing more water into the oceans will destabilise the salinity balance of the oceans, which might lead to global freezing. Go search on the Internet and you can read all about it.

What I think is that the earth is in the process of renewing itself, in the sense that we have harmed and injured the earth so much that it is trying to heal itself. Maybe it sees us as viruses, and like white blood cells in our body, it's "destroying" what it thinks is a harm to itself. We have put so much strain on the earth, that now, it's strained. The population explosion, the want for more opulence, for more power, for more this and more that, it has put such a strain on the earth that it has to try to maintain some balance for it to sustain itself.

But having that train of thought doesn't make seeing such happenings any easier. For those who have been through and experienced the disasters, I can't say I feel your pain, because hell, no one can. It's only when you've been through it that you can acutely feel the pain and loss. What I feel, however, is sadness and sympathy for a fellow human being. I can't say I know the fear and loss one feels after being through such a tragic disaster, but then I can extend my hand and offer some help, as well as understanding. My worries and stresses over school work and deadlines pale in comparison to what has happened to you. Everytime I read a report of how so many died, or how someone has to lose a limb to save their life, I feel like crying. I know my feelings can never measure up to the extent of those who have been through it, I know. However, it is these feelings that make us humans, the dominant species on earth.

How I digress. But if I can say one thing that might come out of these disasters is how we can be more prepared for future occurrences. Also, in face of global warming and the skyrocketing prices of oil, I feel somewhat comforted that at least we are taking steps to preserve the earth. the Green Movement might not be new, but in light of the past few years, is gaining momentum. The papers place more prominence on addressing these issues, and governments are looking into reducing their greenhouse emissions. Previously unknown words like "carbon footprint" and "carbon offsetting" are now being bandied about, with people doing more for the environment.

Maybe we still stand a chance, and that we will last this generation, and the next, and the next. That's (somewhat) comforting, knowing that. Let's just hope it's not a case of too little, too late (which I think is not, if we act NOW).

Written by: Jessinta Cheng