"Every day I wake and everything is broken /
Turnin' off my phone just to get out of bed /
Get home every evenin' and history's repeatin' /
Turnin' off my phone 'cause it's hurtin' my chest"
. -John Legend.

Our Earth is dying. That is not meant to be despondent, it's meant to be truthful. I am dying, you are dying, everything that lives is in some sense dying. We each get moments to take advantage of and we also are blessed enough to be able to take actions to improve our chances of prolonging our life as long as possible.
.
At the end of my trip to Singapore I wanted to go to a place where I would have little occasion to travel to in the future. Being on a plane for 20 hours just to get to a destination makes you appreciate just how much of the world it will physically be impossible to see no matter how old you become. .

As I picked a relatively random destination, I had time to read only a few travel articles before making my selection. An article described an island not too far from Singapore with beaches, hiking, snorkeling and good local seafood. So I booked my ticket to Karumbesar island, part of Indonesia. Anyone familiar with the region probably would have questioned my choice immediately, as this island is mostly just a fishing village with a few passable hotels and a reputation for questionable nightlife. Whoops. This is why I'm not usually impulsive.

A few days before I left, there was news of Sumatra erupting with severe forest fires. The wind blew smoke particles across the rest of Indonesia toward Malaysia and Singapore. If you weren't paying attention, you would think it was just a foggy day and maybe cough a few more times than usual. But smoke particles cause hazy days and if it gets bad enough, makes it difficult to breathe. In any case, no matter how white the sand or blue the water, it will make it look like there's a film of grey invading your view.

But the Earth is dying - we have populated it without finding balance and just like the nights where we (I?) binge on too much ice cream, there's a hangover effect the next day. At this point we can either choose to keep eating ice cream fueled by fossil fuels and non-renewable energy sources mindlessly but aware of the sickness that will inevitably follow, or we can put down the spoon and look around. .

All of the plastic bottles we use end up somewhere, at best case reused directly as more plastic bottles, at worst case, at the bottom of the ocean.
.
The cars we drive get the fuel from somewhere, at best case pulled from the ground in a relatively safe but unsustainable process, at worst case, spilling from tankers or pipelines on the way to be delivered.

There were some spots in Karum Besar that were nice, and admittedly I wasn't able to make it to the nicer beaches toward the north end of the island. But overall, things could be better. Imagine if the mopeds were silent electric versions instead of loud gassy ones. Imagine if when the tide went out, it didn't reveal the waste that had been dropped out of the window on a whim. Imagine how much better the seafood would taste if the animals did not ingest plastic by accident.

Pangung Tua Pek Kong Temple - Karum Besar, Indonesia

The Pangung Tua Pek Kong temple was a Buddhist temple within walking distance from my hotel popular at Chinese new year. I arrived to the temple, and it wasn't very remarkable - I've seen more impressive buildings in Beijing or Vietnam or Singapore. But the long walk there was important to take. It was a reminder that the Earth is dying - but it's up to us if it's a metaphorical death, leading to a rebirth of new environmental ideas and scientific breakthroughs or a literal one, marked by a few more mindless purchases of plastic.

There are plenty of possible steps to take and I know I don't do many of them. For now, maybe seek out funds to help fight forest fires in the Amazon or Indonesia, or learn about more long term future research to make carbon dioxide reuse possible.

Whatever you've had on your mind to improve the environment, do it sooner than later because it's important for you and for your future family.

Scooters on Karum Besar Island, Indonesia