Thursday, 4 October 2007

Driving home a message - Expedition Linne

Disclaimer: Noticed that on the wildsingapore "Wild Web Updates" section, Ria described this entry as "an inspiring film about the father of taxonomy" and that is a little misleading since the documentary film was NOT about Carolus Linnaeus himself but more about how journeys and endeavours such as the ones taken by Linnaeus and his many apostles opened up new spheres for us, and is more of a thought provoking film on how the great man himself may view our present world.

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Just got back from watching the film screening of "Expedition Linne" at SBG. Was nice to see some of my friends (MS, Yaohui, Robert...especially since I came with my office folks) at the screening as well ^^ Nice to also see the number of Swedes (amongst other foreigners) at the screening. Think that in the light of "An Inconvenient Truth" and various other things happening, I would agree with Prof Peter Ng that this documentary film does an interesting job of putting pertinent environmental issues (in addition to the slightly over-publicised climate change) in the light of preserving biodiversity and our enviroment.

The idea of having 3 young university students of differing backgrounds (biologist, medical student, economist) being sent to various parts of the world in the spirit of "Linnaeus explorations" and presenting their different viewpoints and experiences makes the whole idea of biodiversity and the general populance rather believeable. Just like the skeptic of the 3, many of us have probably wondered at one time or another "What has the discovery of a new species of plant got to do with me?" Does at the same time highlight the plight os scientists when dealing with people who are not as interested (or see the basis of their enthusiasm) when dealing with their (the scientist's) area of passion.

What I can say is that, by the end of the film (and jetsetting across 7 continents), I would say that I am truly inspired to keep on doing what I have been doing for conservation in Singapore. The way may be straight and narrow but every little bit that we do to save energy, recycle, cut down on wastage etc. can go a rather long way (especialy if EVERYBODY pitches in!). Despite the modern day extinctions and pollution and mass destruction/wastage that we humans are doing at the moment, active steps to rectify the situation back toward some kind of balance with nature should ease things up a bit. Just what I need to put things sort of in perspective to carry on with my intertidal guidings and work at NParks!

Since this is at the very least a half rambling post, more information on "Expedition Linne" can be found here:
http://www.expeditionlinne.se

3 comments:

Ria Tan said...

Oops sorry about the misrepresentation. Just wanted to make it a short intro. No space on the page.

Many thanks for doing the post about the event. I've added a link to your post on the events listing for the next screening of the film.

juanicths said...

No probs, Ria. Prior to the screening, I was also misled into thinking it's about Linnaeus ^^

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)