Change must come from within

       "I may do nothing much to reduce global warming but at least I live a simple life that doesn't cause much damage to the environment."SIN JUAJAN A MOTORCYCLE TAXI DRIVER
       Climate change negotiation has become more and more complicated and controversial with growing doubts that a practical deal will ever be reached.
       What has been going on inside negotiating rooms over recent years seems to have yielded few results; individual behaviour has been seen as the real tool to cool the earth.
       There are a lot of stories about "small people" and their efforts - from farmers in remote villages to executives in big cities - adopting low-carbon lifestyles.
       Passara Kasemsuwan, managing director of an event organising company,Kengkajkijjakam, said she had changed from a big gas-guzzling car to a smaller one which used less petrol. She also uses environment-friendly gasohol.
       This is for both economic and environmental reasons, she said.
       Norrinee Ruangnoo, assistant chief reporter of Matichon newspaper, said she took part in her office's energy-saving campaign.Matichon has organised an energy-saving competition in which the department with the lowest monthly electricity use will win a 1,000-baht reward.
       "Normally, editorial departments are the biggest electricity users, but with strong cooperation from the staff to adopt power-saving habits, our department won the prize," she said.
       Sin Juajan,52, a motorcycle taxi driver in the Klong Toey area, said global warming and climate change involved everybody. He believes deforestation is the biggest cause of global warming.
       "There used to be a large, thick forest near my house in Nakhon Ratchasima.It's all gone now," Mr Sin said.
       When asked what he had been doing to help stop global warming, Mr Sin said:"I may do nothing much to reduce global warming but at least I live a simple life that doesn't cause much damage to the environment."
       Petrol pump attendant Chanarob Benjasat said he knew nothing - and did not care - about the Kyoto Protocol,the Bangkok Climate Change Talks nor the Copenhagen summit.
       "But I've heard about global warming," said the 15-year-old native of Buri Ram, who left school and came to work in Bangkok five months ago.
       "Global warming means the weather is hotter than before because people cut down trees and forests."
       The rising number of cars in the city was another cause of global warming,the teenager said. He served more than 100 cars a day at the petrol station.
       "Sometimes I wonder why there are so many cars in Bangkok. Motorists visit the petrol station non-stop," he said.
       Chanarob also believed that frequent floods in Narong district which damaged his family's five-rai paddy field almost every year were caused by global warming. But he admitted he had no idea how to help cool the earth.
       "I don't think much about global warming. What I worry most about is how to make ends meet," he said.
       For UN climate chief Yvo de Boer,using efficient light bulbs and installing solar panels on the roof of his house are an example of individual action to curb global warming. When it comes to transport, Mr de Boer said he walked as much as possible and used a hybrid car.
       "There are things that you can do [to cut greenhouse gas emissions]," Mr de Boer said."But to say to people that you can't travel, you can't have a car, or you can't have a television because we suddenly have discovered climate change doesn't seem to be reasonable to me.
       "I think we should look much more strongly to clean technology to take us to a solution, rather than just say to people you can't have certain things in life because of climate change."