I think many readers would probably notice that it is difficult for an English speaker to make an informed decision at the district council elections because most of the publicity is aimed at the majority and hence is in Chinese.

It took active efforts on my part to know the policies and histories of my local district council members. In fact I had to make a phone call to their offices to get any substantial information. I didn't get to speak to the actual representative; I only got to speak to one of their aides. I started off speaking in English but found it rather inefficient and had to revert to speaking Cantonese to get the information I wanted.

So overall I was disappointed with my voting experience when compared to the myriad of choices available overseas, where during any elections I was bombarded with a multitude of electoral information for filtering. In the end I made my vote as best I could but I felt I was making only a semi-informed decision.

Speaking to my nurses - all of whom are locals, and I am proud to say all of whom are voting citizens - surprisingly even they had trouble making an informed decision. They made their decisions based on informative posters and with luck were able to catch some information on the radio that happened to be talking to their district representatives.

Being an environmentally concerned veterinarian I found this aspect rather lacking in my local representatives. I am pleased to hear that green initiatives and words like 'recycling' are more and more common in the local vernacular. But it is still a far cry from being a major political make-or-break issue. I don't blame this on government as government is a representation of the majority of people. It is this majority that needs to be educated on environmental issues.

I found my district councillor unable to answer many of my questions. They simply didn't think any environmental issues were important enough to use as a platform for local elections. I hope some day a representative can come out and market themselves as environmentally proactive. There are many examples of such representation overseas and even though most are in the minority of power, they often hold the balance of power in government and help police general policy.

I believe that we people are part of the natural world and that all forms of life deserve our respect. Society depends on the ecological resources of the planet and through policy and policing, promote sustainable development, end subsidies and tax those policies that stimulate pollution, waste and environmental degradation.

I want policies that promote biodiversity, the loss of which will dramatically reduce our ability of cope with ecological threats such as climate change. I want more legislation that will protect our water systems, such as catchments, rivers, wetlands and estuaries, and groundwater systems.

I want more people to value animals and minimise cruelty to animals as a result of human activities. I want to increase community understanding of animal welfare and the environment. I wish for policies that not only manage waste but eliminate it altogether, that consider the full social, environmental and economic costs when creating, disposing and managing waste. To phase out non-recyclable plastics, eliminate junk mail, eliminate packaging waste and introduce a better labelling scheme for products that are truly environmentally friendly.

I hope people realise that our environmental impact is not determined by how large our population is alone but by how people live. I want Hong Kong to be the leading city in China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; compared to the industrious cities of the mainland, I think we should have a much easier time of it.

Hey, looks like I have written an outline of an environmental agenda for someone to follow. These are not copyrighted. Please feel free to duplicate.