Letters | We should be fighting climate change instead of each other

Readers discuss how Bhutan offers a good lesson in energy sufficiency and national happiness, and suggest ways to help Hongkongers opt out of circular mail

Ukraine war

Letters

Published: 2:30pm, 19 Apr 2022

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To display a nation’s power by boosting its military strength involves an endless chase and a huge financial burden, neither of which is welcomed by humankind.

Still, some nations choose to demonstrate their power by launching a war or testing ballistic missiles, thus causing additional pain to people still suffering from the pandemic, and exacerbating the ills visited upon planet Earth.

The world’s militaries are responsible for about 6 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Scientists for Global Responsibility.

Today, most of humanity seeks harmony and sustainable economic prosperity, not war. Instead of increasing military spending year after year, channelling such huge resources into supporting the development of robust healthcare systems, better social security and genuine green products would benefit all.

Nations are desperately looking for clean energy for electricity, transport and manufacturing. They are also looking for sustainable food production methods, eco-friendly alternatives to problematic plastics, and technologies that can effectively sequester atmospheric carbon.

Developments that meet these goals will help the global economy recover. Nations owning genuinely green technologies will earn local and foreign investments, making them fiscally robust. This in turn will help them become truly powerful without hurting human populations or the environment.

The tension over natural gas supplies from Russia to many European countries is a hard lesson. It shows that many countries, despite ratifying the Paris Agreement, were too slow in transitioning their economies away from fossil fuels and towards self-sufficiency.

On the other hand, although Bhutan is a relatively small country in both size and population, its green achievements and commitments provide a good lesson. It is the first carbon-negative country in the world as a result of mandating that 60 per cent of its land be covered by forest at all times. It is self-sufficient in energy, the main source of which is hydroelectricity, the excess of which is exported, enabling it to earn revenue.

Bhutan is located between two superpowers, China and India. It does not possess a large military force for national defence yet enjoys peace and happiness.

Hong Kong relies heavily on energy imports to keep the economy thriving. It is therefore vulnerable to many external factors. Although the government has launched action plans and road maps focusing on climate action, the actual transition to clean and self-sufficient energy continues only at a snail’s pace!

Edwin Lau Che-feng, executive director, The Green Earth

Help households opt out of circular mail

In our letter in March, we argued that Hongkong Post should conduct carbon auditing on its unaddressed circular services to decide whether this programme should continue. Considering the nuisance these unsolicited mails cause to Hong Kong families, we believe it should offer more opportunities for households to opt out of such marketing services and unsubscribe from mail from specific companies.

Hongkong Post allows city residents to reject the marketing mails with “no circular mail” stickers on their postboxes. While these stickers are available from post offices, Home Affairs Enquiry Centres of District Offices, as well as management offices of public housing estates and individual private properties, not many Hongkongers are aware of this option. Given that only about 12.4 per cent of households in the city use the stickers, we call on the government to provide more opt-out stickers to the public through convenience stores and shopping centres. Environmental groups should also be allowed to design and distribute their own opt-out stickers for the community.

Through its geodemographic segmentation tool PrismGeo, the post office allows its clients to target customers from specific income or occupation groups with more relevant advertisements. Yet, such services are only available to premium clients and cannot guarantee customers will only receive information that meets their needs. The post office could print QR codes on circular mail so customers can scan them and unsubscribe from an individual company’s mailings.

This feedback could be collected through the government app “iAM Smart” so the post office can gather more information about individual customers’ preferences by cross-referring data from other government departments. With more knowledge about households in Hong Kong and their needs, the post office can then partner with large technology companies to develop its digital marketing programmes to phase out circular mail services.

Zixi Luo, Charlie Cheung, Kowloon Tong