What do you stand for?

You believe that the world climate is changing, the planet is getting warmer due to greenhouse gas emission and human activities. Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, storms, floods, draughts and wildfires are more frequent and severe. You support renewable energy and reduce our carbon footprint, or do you?

• Are you willing to pay more for your electricity and opt in for renewal energy? Or would you pay extra to offset your carbon emission? On one hand, you know this is the right thing to do. But it hurts your wallet, and you are suspicious that the extra money may end up in the coffers of the big businesses only and achieve nothing.

• Do you turn on the heater during winter or the air-con during summer? Of course you do, otherwise it's too cold/hot to live. But do you wear t-shirt and shorts at home with the heater on while it's snowing outside? Or keep the aircon on the whole night while you sleep with a blanket? And do you take more than 5 minutes for your hot shower? You should know that heating and cooling consume a lot of energy and contribute significantly to carbon emission. Would you even consider moving to another city/country with a temperate climate so you don't use so much heating/cooling? After all, the planet is ruined because human exploited its resources in order to conquer the environment.
• Do you support nuclear energy? You argue that nuclear energy is not renewable (there is finite amount of uranium on this planet), and you are concern about nuclear waste and safety. But it is obvious that if we want to reduce carbon emission and provide base load power to everyone, nuclear energy is currently the most economical, efficient and quickest way to achieve the goal.
• Are you a vegetarian? Or at least reduce the amount of meat you eat? You know that global livestock contribute to significant amount of greenhouse gas emission (unfortunately they fart), and many native forests are cleared to make way for grazing land. You are also aware that excessive meat consumption is bad for your health. If all Indian and Chinese consume as much meat as the Americans, the world would have ended already. If we go further, would you support genetic engineering? Would you eat lab-grown meat? Would you eat insects? All these can potentially do less harm to the environment and provide the protein that you need.

• If you would never eat fried crickets in lieu of your steak, would you at least not waste food or let them spoil in your fridge? Do you use a dishwasher? Do you wash you clothes in hot water? Do you take the lift when you could have walked up and down few floors? Have you considered how your everyday life and bad habits are not in line with what you believe in?
• Do you buy local products, even if the imported ones are cheaper, better quality, or both? Global shipping contributes to significant amount of carbon emission. In this global economy, minerals and materials are shipped to the third world countries with cheap labour, and the finished goods are shipped all over the world to the consumers. For example, there was a viral photo of a cup of diced pears that was grown in Argentina, processed in Thailand and sold in the USA. When you pick up your fruit salad, do you check where it is made in? Or why do you buy fruit salad in the first place when you can eat local fresh fruit in season? Are you willing to give up that little convenience?
• How much stuff do you own? Clothes, shoes, accessories, gadgets and things. Do you buy from one of those global fast fashion labels such as H&M, Zara, Uniqlo? Do you throw away clothes after one season? Do you have shoes that you haven't worn in a year? Cotton is a water-intensive crop, and all the manufacturing/shipping/retailing are taking their toll on the environment. The endless pursuit of economic growth and wastage is leading to where we are now.

• Do you drive a petrol car? Do you live in an urban sprawl with limited public transport and have no choice but to drive? How large is your home? Would you give up your space and live closer to where you work/study/shop so you can walk or ride a bicycle?
• Do you take a holiday and travel by air/car/cruise? Do you enjoy your buffet at your hotel or cruise ship?
• Do you stay online all the time and watch Netflix, play Minecraft or read JetPunk blogs? Cloud computing relies on massive data centres that are energy intensive (computers need a lot of air-con to keep cool). How about taking a walk in the park, playing a game of football or picking up a book to read instead?

You believe in equality in gender, race, sexuality, social class, age etc. Of course, you loathe a misogynist, racist or homophobe. You believe in liberty and democracy and equal opportunity for all. So have you considered these?

• Do you support quota for female or minorities in parliament, company board, or anywhere else that should be based on merit only? After all, the world is still run by old white wealthy straight men at the moment. And if you happen to be a man, straight, white, old and wealthy, how would you feel when your position is taken over by someone because of a quota system?

• Do you follow female's sports or the Paralympics with the same enthusiasm as men's sports or the Olympics? Do you support equal pay to sportswomen though their sports do not attract the same number of spectators and revenue?
• If you are single, would you date a person from a different race, colour, religious background etc.? Or have you ever swiped right on Tinder (or Grindr) if the person is from a different background to you? Or if you have children, how would you feel if they marry someone from a different race? You may not speak the same language as your in-laws, or they may want your children to convert to their religion. What would you feel?
• What if your children come out as gay/lesbian/bisexual or want to change their gender? What if it's not your children, but your partner/husband/wife? Or it is your parent who finally come out after hiding all these years? Are you open-minded enough that they feel comfortable to come out to you? Or why do they need to come out and why do you assume that they are heterosexual in the first place?

• How welcoming are you towards refugees and asylum seekers? What if they only come because there is little economic opportunity in where they live? Abject poverty is a structural economic problem and has little to do with one's smartness or hard work, i.e. if you were born in one of these poor countries, you would probably not be as successful as you are now. So your achievements to date are more to do with luck than anything else.
• How often do you make a donation? Not to your church or local club, but for social causes.
• If you live in a democratic country, who do you vote for? Are you even registered to vote, or bother queueing up on election day? Do you vote for the politician or party that promises the most tax cuts or jobs creation, and ignore their political stance and performance on other social issues?

Sorry this blog is more like grumbling than anything else. It is by no mean a comprehensive list or offering solutions to the many complex issues in this contemporary world. In fact, many of these are merely first world problems. If you do not have personal or financial security, climate change and all the rest are of secondary concern.

So what do you believe in? What do you stand for?