EARTH HOUR HEROICS... What for?

I agree with the writer of this letter, KL not dark enough during EARTH HOUR CHUAH PING SHIEN who feels that we are not showing enough concern about saving Mother Earth. However, I feel that the general public is resigned on such environmental issues and they feel that the Govt is just sloganeering when it announced recently in the UN that we will reduce carbon emissions by 40% by the year 2020. Why do I say that? Just as an example, the Paper also announced that the most prominent businessmen in Malaysia, to me, is also involved in the most destructive industry Sarawak shakers, and companies

For example one of the richest Malaysian tycoons, who made it to the 2010 Forbes "list of billionaires" is a timber tycoon best known for its vast timber interests, oil palm plantations and also large timber concessions in Papua New Guinea, Siberia, Brazil, central Africa (one of which is Gabon,) New Zealand, British Guyana (South America) and Russia. In its strategy to increase annual profits of the company, vast new tracts of forest in those mentioned areas will be felled each year. How long will it take before the 'assets' around the globe are completely depleted by such companies?

Let me ask our readers this question. Why should the public NOT feel apathetic towards the tokenism shown by the world during EARTH HOUR, when in fact most Govts condone the destructive businesses of many of its largest corporations. Timber extraction is one example, gold and diamond mining are some others. In these businesses too, there is NO sustainable development and the Earth is continuously being destroyed. Planting a tree to replace a 100 year old tree that has been felled is not sustainable development, no matter what the spin doctors say. What about land that has been totally denuded by the destructive mining of minerals?

Malaysians just do not care enough, and the daily increasing foreign immigrants worsen the situation. Do we have to wait for the last tree to be left standing, or the last drop of oil to be extracted before we realise that our grandhildren cannot eat gold?