Earth Day was on 22 April 2007 and I thought it is a good time to think about global warming. As Christians, we should endeavour as much as possible to do as much as we can to save the Earth, for "the earth is the Lord's and everything in it".
The following are my reflections based on an article by Larry West, which you can read the full text here
Burning fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, oil and gasoline raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide is a major contributor to global warming.
10 simple actions to take to help reduce global warming:
1) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
By recycling household waste, you can save pounds of carbon dioxide.
2) Use Less Heat and Air Conditioning
Reducing the amount of energy needed to cool the house in Malaysia save carbon dioxide.
3) Change a Light Bulb
Replace regular light bulbs with compact florescent light (CFL) bulbs.
4) Drive Less and Drive Smart
Less driving means fewer emissions and fewer carbon dioxide.
5) Buy Energy-Efficient Products
Things using far less energy can save pounds of carbon dioxide.
6) Use Less Hot Water
Less use of hot water minimizes the energy required to produce it.
7) Use the "Off" Switch
Save electricity and reduce global warming by turning off lights whenever possible.
8) Plant a Tree
During photosynthesis, trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. More trees more absorption of carbon dioxide.
9) Get a Report Card from Your Utility Company
".. free home energy audits to help consumers identify areas in their homes that may not be energy efficient."...Ehh, I don't know whether TNB does provide this ...
10) Encourage Others to Conserve
Hey, that's what I am doing...
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
What is an Advocatus?
An Advocatus, an expression used in the Middle Ages, is an advocate, charged with the protection and representation in secular matters of the church.
I am legally-trained as an advocate, in my middle age and serving the church particularly in "secular" or legal matters. That's as far as the similarities go.
From the early years of my legal training, I have been taught to understand and apply what I learnt through the Socratic method of questioning. This has now become like a knee jerk reaction in every aspect of my life. In every situation or anything I face, I ask: "What if...?".
The following aptly sums up the value of questioning is to legal reasoning and learning:
"There is a value to asking questions. We all learn from asking questions either of ourselves or of others. And the answers lead to the next question, on and on. Thus, if the teacher can take the student from question to question, thereby demonstrating the progression of the teacher's own thought (or a judge's thought or a court's thought, or a litigant's thought), the student can begin to visualize what forms the progression of his or her own thought might take. The ability to formulate the question that will best advance the inquiry is the skill that students need to develop to be able to think and learn on their own. Accordingly, the student must be able to see us, their teachers, in the act of formulating the best next question. Where we have figured some things out and reached certain conclusions, the student needs to see what guided our figuring out, how we got from point A to point B. By showing our students the questions that we formulated along the way, we demonstrate how they can reach conclusions of, and on, their own." [Jennifer Jaff, Frame-Shifting: An Empowering Methodology for Teaching and Learning Legal Reasoning, 35 J. Legal Educ. 249, 262 (1986)].
As such, this blog of mine is more like a conversation and at the very least, just asking and talking aloud to myself on what I see, hear, taste, feel and think about things which matter most to me in living this life according to the Word of God.
I am legally-trained as an advocate, in my middle age and serving the church particularly in "secular" or legal matters. That's as far as the similarities go.
From the early years of my legal training, I have been taught to understand and apply what I learnt through the Socratic method of questioning. This has now become like a knee jerk reaction in every aspect of my life. In every situation or anything I face, I ask: "What if...?".
The following aptly sums up the value of questioning is to legal reasoning and learning:
"There is a value to asking questions. We all learn from asking questions either of ourselves or of others. And the answers lead to the next question, on and on. Thus, if the teacher can take the student from question to question, thereby demonstrating the progression of the teacher's own thought (or a judge's thought or a court's thought, or a litigant's thought), the student can begin to visualize what forms the progression of his or her own thought might take. The ability to formulate the question that will best advance the inquiry is the skill that students need to develop to be able to think and learn on their own. Accordingly, the student must be able to see us, their teachers, in the act of formulating the best next question. Where we have figured some things out and reached certain conclusions, the student needs to see what guided our figuring out, how we got from point A to point B. By showing our students the questions that we formulated along the way, we demonstrate how they can reach conclusions of, and on, their own." [Jennifer Jaff, Frame-Shifting: An Empowering Methodology for Teaching and Learning Legal Reasoning, 35 J. Legal Educ. 249, 262 (1986)].
As such, this blog of mine is more like a conversation and at the very least, just asking and talking aloud to myself on what I see, hear, taste, feel and think about things which matter most to me in living this life according to the Word of God.
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