Hongkongers experienced dramatic temperature changes last year. The highest record of the average temperature was broken and the Cold Weather Warning was issued persistently. Yet, this is not the end of the story. Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Lam Chiu-ying, has just announced an inconvenient truth to public - winter may disappear as soon as 2020.

All of these unexpected events signify the seriousness of global warming, thanks to the power plants in Hong Kong which contribute more than 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions to the city's greenhouse effect. If we do not take any actions to prevent the problem from getting serious, it is worrying that there may only be scorching hot summer throughout the year in the future.

Undoubtedly, cutting energy consumption can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Hong Kong. However, what is the best measure we can implement in order to cut the energy use in Hong Kong?

Setting up rules to restrict energy consumption of households and business corporations? Or penalizing those who use energy excessively? These measures may be not as effective as educating the public. We believe that education is the best way to get rid of the problem.

There are a lot you can do to save our planet. For example:

Unplug electrical appliances if they are not in use. Even electrical appliances in stand-by mode consume a significant amount of electricity, so don't leave them in sleep mode when they are idle.

Instead of turning on the air conditioners during summer or even throughout the whole year, you can switch on electric fans and open the windows.

If there is a must for you to turn on the air conditioner, set it to 25.5C, which is the most comfortable temperature for humans.

It is a good idea to ask a professional to clean the air filters of your air conditioners regularly as dust will impede airflow and result in a 15 percent increase in energy consumption.

As China started to label household air-conditioners and refrigerators in 2005, you can choose energy-efficient products by looking at the labels which give you information about energy consumption and efficiency information of the products. The labels are classified into five levels of energy efficiency and remember that the first level is the most efficient.

Replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving light bulbs because incandescent ones have extremely high power consumption. Only 5 percent of the electricity is used to generate light. The remaining 95 percent is used to generate heat, which often makes people feel uncomfortable or even dizzy.

All of the energy-efficient products mentioned above may be more expensive than the non-energy efficient ones, but in the long-term, they save far more energy, so you will be happier with your monthly electricity bills.

Saving energy is easy; even our kids are committed to do so. Green Sense has organized a campaign called "313 Light Out Action" which aims at arousing schools' awareness of global warming and energy saving. During the campaign, the schools switch off lights in classrooms for 5 minutes in order to show their ambitions to reduce the greenhouse effect in Hong Kong. We have successfully invited 400 schools in Shenzhen, Macao and Hong Kong, and 18 legislative councilors to participate in this campaign. Hopefully, students can reflect on their energy consumption in everyday lives after this campaign and schools can reduce electricity consumption by 3 percent in the coming financial year. Each school will be responsible for urging one business corporation to reduce their energy use. Therefore, we hope that business corporations, in which energy consumption has greatly increased by 40 percent within the past 10 years, can cut their energy consumption by 3 percent by the end of next financial year. Moreover, we will urge the two power plants which generate a surplus of 20 to 30 percent of electricity, to stop generating surplus electricity in the near future and develop renewable energy resources as soon as possible.

I must emphasize that this campaign does not aim at cutting energy consumption only within 5 minutes. Instead, we hope that it will be extended from a 5-minute campaign to a long-term one so that the idea of energy saving will be brought to people's daily lives. All the participants and also those who might not have the opportunity to join the campaign could start reflecting on their energy use every day and saving energy resources.

Although electricity is essential to our daily lives, you can try to turn off all the electrical appliances once and appreciate the gift of nature. Not only is it good for your health, but it also reduces your cost on electricity. Last but not least, our world will be a better place for our next generation. Then, will you still hesitate to kill "three" birds with one stone?

The Green Sense provided the article.

(HK Edition 03/25/2008 page1)