Green dream: consume less to help the planet

I refer to the article by Edwin Lau, executive director of The Green Earth (“In great need of less greed”, April 22).

After centuries of economic development, humans have undoubtedly done much harm to our mother earth.

The problem of global warming has been deteriorating, extreme weather is everywhere, from the unusually wet conditions in the UK in the summers of 2007 and 2012 to the typhoons of unprecedented speed and strength and the heatwaves in Asia.

Yet, we are still putting much more focus on economic development instead of our environment, particularly developing countries like India, Brazil and Afghanistan.

While they are struggling with their economic development, they build high-polluting industries which contribute to the emission of many air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and thus jeopardise our environment.

But without a well-developed economy, how could the developing countries put all their effort into protecting the environment?

It is stated in the article that all policies should cling to the principle of sustainable development, all business plans should put environmental sustainability as the top priority and all of us should rethink our purchasing behaviour.

Yes, it is time for us to modify and moderate our consumerism – we have to think twice before we leap. When we are going to buy something, if it is not a necessity, perhaps we could put it down. It is inevitable for us to sometimes follow our greed and buy some “want” things . We do not need to feel guilty about that but just limit the times we buy those non-essential things.

I hope that a concerted effort worldwide to protect the environment is not a pipe dream: ultimately there has to be a drastic change in our minds to prioritise the environment over material things.

Roxanne Liu, Mong Kok