Sustainable Lifestyle in Practice

I am not sure whether it is environmental consciousness or not. I took a day bus trip for city tour of Kita-Kyushu yesterday. While exploring the places of interest is my main objective, I accidentally discovered that bus drivers have the tendency of switch off the engine while waiting for passengers or in front of the traffic light. It was done by almost all of the bus drivers. Later, I was made to understand that it is for the sake of protecting environment. It is to cut down the carbon emission even for a few seconds.

Some experts claimed the consumption for fuel is higher every time we start an engine and to switch on and off of an engine will shorten the life span of the engine, of course the passengers might also complain for discomfort. Economically, perhaps it is not feasible of doing so. Socially, if the passengers are not concerned much about CO2, it will create a lot of dissatifaction in which I believe it will definitely happen in Malaysia.

However, the people of KitaKyushu are supportive of this small but important gesture. It is a practical way of doing little individually, but collectively bring in bigger impact to the climate change problem. The City Council does not mind to folk out higher operation cost, the drivers do not see it a trouble of switching on the engine so often, and more importantly the public does not complain about discomfort. I think this is partnership and participation in practice as well.