This Week's Green Initiatives

Aspiring eco-paparazzi monkey spotted a few hot new green initiatives around town this week.



SGCARPOOL.COM

Launched just last week on 30 Sept, there is a new outlet for people interested in finding carpools in Singapore. sgcarpool.com is transportation matching made easy. In the sgcarpool blog, they even included a list of alternative transportations and carpool etiquette! In the US, there are even carpooling lanes on highways to encourage more people to travel together instead of having single-occupancy vehicles causing traffic jams, wasting time and resources. Not forgetting, polluting our environment and consuming fossil fuel! Carpooling works in many ways - you can rotate drivers, cars or if you don't drive, you can catch a ride with somebody who does! Sharing fuel cost is a common practice unless there is a rotation of cars and drivers.

My earliest understanding of carpools came from the comic strip Blondie and Dagwood where Dagwood is seen every morning, rushing out of the house to catch the carpool or as in the following strip depicts, he forgets that it's his turn to pick the carpool up!



So far my own experience in carpooling has been very positive especially in the US where there is no public transport to the nature reserve near UCSB. Thankfully, the volunteer docents were kind retirees who did not mind picking this monkey up every friday to go for the training sessions!

Likewise in Singapore, I am embarrassed to say that I often depend on friends who drive to give me a ride to out of way places. While I've resisted driving for 26 years, I do acknowledge now that driving is a necessary skill and in fact, I may be learning how to drive this December. Like Dagwood, I realize that carpooling doesn't have to be a one way street, sometimes I can actually be the one driving others to return the favour. Hopefully I won't be as blur as him!

CCO Blog Launch

Speaking of driving, one of the biggest challenges to sustainable mobility is the contribution of greenhouse gases and subsequently climate change.

The climate change organization (CCO) in Singapore has come up with a new initiative to bring greater awareness of climate change to Singaporeans! This Saturday, CCO will be launching a group blog penned by the big wigs of the environment circle such as Dr Geh Min and Mr Howard Shaw - head of Nature Society (Singapore) and Singapore Environment Council respectively.



Unfortunately, I have my fair share of green activities that day and will very unfortunately, be unable to attend the launch. Guess I'll have to miss out on taking photos with the CCO Mascot, Snowball the Penguin. I do so love mascots after all!

Blogging Workshop

Blogging is the rage these days but content specific blogs like the CCO blog are very much in need! The Naked Hermit Crabs are organizing a series of blogging workshops hosted by the NIE Green Club in the following fridays 12th and 19th October 2007. Of course being such a fan of carpooling, we will be arranging for carpooling to the workshop as well! If you are interested to know more details of the workshops, leave a comment below.