If you are not already aware, global warming is a legitimate issue. The recent intense heat that is sweeping through Singapore is a testament to the fact that we have to do something to slow the rate at which our planet warms up. I am cognizant of the reality that we cannot do away totally with fossil fuels immediately. Climate activists in Europe, those that employ civil disobedience, in my humble opinion, do more to irritate the general public than to raise awareness of climate change. So then what can we do? I believe we can make small changes to our daily habits. It does not have to be extreme. It can be things like reducing our carbon footprint by cutting down on meat products and purchasing locally-grown produce. We can also be environmentally aware by reducing our use of paper products and cutting down our use of single-use plastics. There is also another proactive thing we can do. We can plant more trees.
When we speak of planting trees, it seems to be that we can only do it if we have our own land. Singapore is a city where most of the population lives in built-up apartments. How are we supposed to have the requisite land to plant any trees?
This is where community tree-planting events come in. NParks runs such events. The goal is to plant a million more trees across Singapore over the next 10 years. The public can participate in such events. Wanting to make a change and be a more environmentally aware organisation, a few of us in the office decided to sign up for the OnemillionTrees Community Tree Planting Event on the 17th of May. The location was Changi South Lane.
It was heartening to see that there were school-going children at the event. Better to plant the seeds of tree planting at a younger age!
This was Wilber planting his tree. We had to dig a deep enough hole in the ground to place the sapling into that hole. We then had to cover up the hole with the sapling. It was very obvious that Wilber was not used to doing manual labour. According to him, he felt like he took the physical assessment test in the army. He likes to exaggerate.
He does look good next to the tree he planted.
This tree was the tree I planted.
There were NParks staff on site to show us what was the species of tree which we planted. You could also register your tree to keep on record that that tree was planted by you.
There were workers on hand to aid us with our tree planting. Apparently, you have to make a doughnut around the tree so that water can be trapped around the tree. It took me a good couple of minutes to get this done.
This guy takes a matter of seconds to get that doughnut up… I truly do not know what we would do without these people… Great respect. They are very fast and I think Singapore needs foreign workers. I do not think we can do without them.
Ok so that is me and my tree.
And I have no idea what Kevin is doing.
If you would like to know more about the One Million Trees Movement, you can visit this link: https://www.nparks.gov.sg/treessg/one-million-trees-movement.
The tree planting takes a maximum of an hour. You end up hot and sweaty but with a small sense of achievement knowing that at least you helped in your tiny way.
Yours sincerely,
Daryl
