Green Volunteers & Navayagum Spiritual Group @ Tampines Eco Garden

On 8th November 2014, Navayagum Spiritual Group help Green Volunteers at Tampines Eco Garden. 

Green symbolized: Sincerity, White: Purity and Orange: Spirituality  

After morning hard work, kind volunteers treated us with home cooked vegetarian meal for lunch!

Sambar sadham; Coriander with tomato as gravy. (Purely Vegan) 

                                   

Green Volunteers would like to send thanks and gratitude to individual members from Navayagum spiritual Group for the time and hard work and time they spent at Tampines Eco Garden!. 

Ubin Day 2014

Ubin Day was last celebrated more than a decade ago in 2003.  This year, Ubin Day is happening with lots of fun-filled activities lining up on 30th November (Sunday) on the beautiful island.  Pulau Ubin is an island located on the North-Eastern part of Singapore and about 10 mins away from the boat ride.  Bring your family and friends to join us on this special occasion!  For details of the activities, please visit the website http://ubinday2014.wix.com/ubin.

Designed by Rebecca Lee

 

Ubin Day 30 November 2014

Mangrove clean-up activity at Sungei Api-Api

Sungei Api-api and its river bank is home to many native and migratory birds, otters and other animals important to the eco-system. With waste thrown into the sea and increasing development around the area, the mangroves are getting more polluted than it is naturally created to handle, threatening the homes of these animals and the ecosystem that thrives.

Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging storm and hurricane winds, waves, and floods. Mangroves also help prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their tangled root systems. They maintain water quality and clarity, filtering pollutants and trapping sediments originating from land. They also serve as valuable nursery areas for shrimp, crustaceans, mollusks, and fishes.

Do come along with your family and friends and do your part for the environment, to understand the importance of protecting our fragile eco-system and lastly, to have fun!

This event is organised by The Green Volunteers & Sea Shepherd Singapore.Please register for the activity by emailing:whitecokatoo@gmail.com with your full name, mobile number and name of friends/family members participating.

Date: Sunday, 28 September 2014
Time: 0830 am

Meeting point:
Pasir Ris Carpark C; Wash up/Toilet area

Things to bring:
- Water bottle
- Gloves
- Diving boots or well-covered shoes (no slippers/sandals!)
- Tongs
- Insect repellent
- Cap/hat
- Sunglasses
- Poncho/Raincoat
- extra set of clothes to change after
- Smiles, enthusiasm and friends!

(We will be providing trash bags. Some gloves too but it will not be enough to go around, so please do bring your own gloves and tongs if possible, thank you!)

Mangrove cleanup @ Sungei Api-Api, Pasir Ris park

Sungei Api-api and its river bank is home to many native and migratory birds, otters and other animals important to the eco-system. With waste thrown into the sea and increasing development around the area, the mangroves are getting more polluted than it is naturally created to handle, threatening the homes of these animals and the ecosystem that thrives.

Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging storm and hurricane winds, waves, and floods. Mangroves also help prevent erosion by stabilizing sediments with their tangled root systems. They maintain water quality and clarity, filtering pollutants and trapping sediments originating from land. They also serve as valuable nursery areas for shrimp, crustaceans, mollusks, and fishes.

Do come along with your family and friends and do your part for the environment, to understand the importance of protecting our fragile eco-system and lastly, to have fun!

This event is organised by The Green Volunteers & Sea Shepherd Singapore.

***NOTE***
Please register for the activity by EMAIL.

Date: Sunday, 29th June 2014
Time: 9.30 am - 12.30 pm
Meeting point:
Pasir Ris Carpark C: Wash up/Toilet area (near Gallop stable)

Things to bring:
- Water bottle
- Gloves
- Diving boots or well-covered shoes (no slippers/sandals!)
- Tongs
- Insect repellent
- Cap/hat
- Sunglasses
- Poncho/Raincoat
- extra set of clothes to change after
- Smiles, enthusiasm and friends!

(We will be providing trash bags. Some gloves too but it will not be enough to go around, so please do bring your own gloves and tongs if possible, thank you!)

Helping hand needed at Tampines Eco Green park

Our next gardening session will be on 28th June (Saturday) at Tampines Eco Green as part of the maintenance to keep the butterfly plants free of weeds.  We are looking for volunteers who are keen to help us.  The gardening session will end at around 1 pm.  Here are the details of the activity and meeting point:

Date: Saturday, 28th June 2014
Venue:  Tampines Eco Green
Meeting time and venue:  9.30 am at Tampines MRT (outside exit B from the station)

Do remember to bring your own drinking water to hydrate yourself and hat for the activity.  If you have any questions with regards to the gardening session, please email Grant (grant.pereira@mail.com). 

We hope to see you there!

26th and 27th gardening session

We would like to announce that our gardening session in April has resume!  Apologies for the confusion.  The gardening activity at Tampines Eco Green park will be on Saturday, 26th April.  On the following day, 27th April (Sunday), we will be at Pasir Ris park, car park C butterfly garden.  Details of activity below:

Date: Saturday, 26th April 2014
Venue:  Tampines Eco Green park
Meeting time and venue:  9.30 am at Tampines MRT (outside exit B from the station)

Date:  Sunday, 27th April 2014
Venue:  Pasir Ris park (car park C, butterfly garden)
Meeting time and venue:  9.30 am at Pasir Ris MRT (outside exit B from the station)

Bring drinking water, hat and wear light clothing as the weather can be hot and humid.  Please click here to email Grant if you are keen in making a difference for the garden and be on time. :)

With activities lined up in April

The gardening session mentioned below has been CANCELLED on 26th April, Saturday.

April will be a busy month for Green Volunteers!  From exhibition to mangrove cleanup and what's more is our monthly gardening session at Tampines Eco Green park.  Our regular butterfly garden maintenance at due on the last Saturday of the month 26th April.  We are looking for volunteers who do not mind getting themselves under the hot sun in the morning.  Do join us if you are able to!  We are meeting 9 am at Tampines MRT station outside the exit facing Tampines 1 and we will walk over to the park.

25 years later – NOTHING HAS CHANGED

Last week marked the 25^th anniversary of the horrendous oil spill by the supertanker ESSO VALDEZ at Prince William Sound, Alaska.


The disaster has made worse by the late arrival of clean-up equipment and when they did eventually arrive, many of them did not work.  10 hours after ESSO Valdez ran around the captain of Esso Valdez was given a breath test for alcohol and still they found his alcohol level way over the acceptable legal limit – this leads one to the deduce that at the time of the grounding the captain (who was not on the bridge) must have been very drunk.


Since then (a quarter of a century later) the oil companies/government agencies have introduced/imposed many stringent laws and safety measures to ensure that an accident of this magnitude never happens again.  This disaster killed millions of sea birds, otters and destroyed many livelihoods even today the herring have not returned.   Even 25 years later patches of oil sludge can be found in coves and under rocks at once pristine beaches.


Fast forward to 2010, 20 years after the Esso Valdez, the BP operated drilling rig deepwater horizon caught fire and spilled about 210,000,000 gallons of oil into the sea.  And guess what? The same debacle happened again.  Clean up efforts were both delayed and tardy while all parties were more concerned with blaming each other by hiring the experts at wriggling – lawyers. 


BP blamed the operator who in turn tried to push the blame to the rig’s owner who of course put the blame back on BP the charterers – while these 3 stooges were pointing fingers at each other, our world was being polluted.


Esso and BP are reputed to be world class companies and said to have great operations practices (the all have ISO and other internationally recognized ratings).  They practice the best Corporate Social Responsibilities and even support green NGOs with grants/sponsorships.  It’s their 20 pieces of silver to “greenwash” the world and unsuspecting gullible public. 


Esso and BP are reputed to be world class companies and said to have great operations practices (the all have ISO and other internationally recognized ratings).  They practice the best Corporate Social Responsibilities and even support green NGOs with grants/sponsorships.  It’s their 20 pieces of silver to “greenwash” the world and unsuspecting gullible public.


I’ve got some simple advice for these talking heads – stop talking and go plant a tree.  I think enough is enough and we the common people (often passive bystanders) have to take a stand and demand for a cleaner and greener environment.  I can hear some of you saying that as Singaporeans we have no influences over world events.


Yes, this is correct, even the Singapore government cannot stop the regular haze that comes from Indonesia even though this has been happening for years but we can make a stand/report illegal irresponsible acts or activities.  In Pasir Ris where I live I found out that a wafer plant company was pumping out toxic waste into Sungei Api-Api.  I made several reports to the authorities with little tangible results so I brought this attention to my MP (who happens to be the DPM Teo Chee Hean) and now things are moving much faster.


On the path to Pasir Ris park besides Sungei Api-Api there is a healthy population of jungle fowls but I noticed that some have been disappearing.  So last week, I took the time and explored the long grass area and found some traps that I promptly removed.  Here are some numbers that you can save into your mobile to report illegal or unaccepted behavior.

• AVA – 6325-7625
• NEA  -  1800-2255-632
• PUB  -  1800-2846-600
• Police  -  999

Don’t just talk the talk – it is time to walk the walk.  We are having a mangrove clean-up at Sungei Api-Api on Saturday 19^th April, 8.00 am (to celebrate Earth Day, 22^nd April).  For details of the mangrove cleanup activity on meeting point and what to bring, please visit our previous blog post here.  Come join us!  Email Grace if you want to make a difference.


Cheers,
Grant W. Pereira
Mobile: 968-40-950