Adeel Malik
Climate change has been a long-overdue problem since the 19th century. With numerous adverse impacts on species, polar regions, oceans and forests.
Muslim Council of Hong Kong caught up with Form 4 students at Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College (IKTMC) who brainstormed several practical solutions to lessen the burden on our planet Earth.
1) Petitions
Since incineration of plastic waste plays a big toll on climate change, petitions were sought to tackle plastic waste. Students signed petitions including one entitled as
“Only genuine actions will lead us to plastic-free. Leading confectionery brands should act immediately” by The Green Earth.
It aims to ensure confectionery brands disclose the total number of packages imported to Hong Kong, introduce zero-packaged purchases, and develop non-plastic packaging alternatives, along with recycling packaging materials properly.
2) Donations and Social Media Awareness
The students successfully raised around 1200 HKD and planted 150 trees (3 times more than the target) in Australia for the bushfires earlier this year through the website onetreeplanted.org where you donate 1 (USD) to plant one tree.
Students found that the organization played a major role in making a difference in climate change and the animals’ habitats that were lost.
The sum was only possible due to the help of the graphics design and Student Union teams which helped to design the poster and promote respectively.
3) Jummah sharing
In early November, two Form 4 students delivered a short presentation on deforestation and the unfortunate incident “Australia wildfire” as an example of its serious damage to forests.
References from the hadith and also from the verses of the Quran were utilized. For instance, our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said,
“if the final Hour reaches upon one of you while there is a sapling in his hand, then finish planting it”.
The Jummah sharing uplifted awareness on climate change and helped in securing the aforementioned donation amount.
4) Solar panels
In order to use solar energy to reduce the negative effects of climate change, we searched online to compare different companies, prices, and which panels would be more feasible for our school to apply. However, there were some matters taken into consideration since solutions are not picture perfect .
Alhumdulillah, our school principal discussed with our class representatives on the solar panels and we are very keen to see a sustainable solution to implement renewable energy facilities.
5) Email
We have sent e-mails to the Nature Conservation Management Department and the Environmental Education Department. We requested them to provide subsidies to schools for implementing solar panels as well as hosting workshops on environmental awareness that benefits the next generation.
That way, more people can understand how serious the matter is. A lot of hard work was put into composing these emails. Hopefully, we will get a reply from them in the future.
6) Open Day
We were scheduled to run a climate awareness stall on our school’s Open Day in order to spread awareness. Unfortunately due to the pandemic, it was canceled, but we gained a lot of knowledge from planning the event.
We planned to alert the public about the severity of climate change using different approaches, for example gifting souvenirs, such as hourglasses and seeds for people to grow plants by themselves after playing our environment-related games.
Hopefully, we get an opportunity to put our idea into effect.
7) Personal lifestyle
To all the readers, we can also make changes to our personal lifestyle to mitigate climate change. For instance, eating more plants than meat and reducing, recycling, reusing and refusing.
It is our responsibility to take care of our beloved Earth and spread awareness about climate change so that we could ensure sustainable growth and intergenerational equity.
Right now, it is time to make a difference and with everyone’s cooperation, we might be able to create a better future for all.
