Some degree of scarcity is good for sustainability

While prosperity and sustainability might seem like opposing goals, scarcity can actually be a driver of sustainable practices and good life. When resources are abundant, we tend to waste them. Conversely, scarcity encourages us to conserve.

The Power of a Little Less:

Let me share a personal anecdote. As a strong believer in "reduce, reuse, recycle," I fully supported the local fee on plastic shopping bags (5 cents each) aimed at promoting reusable alternatives. However, this change had an unintended consequence – our stockpile of plastic bags under the sink dwindled quickly. We now faced a dilemma: buy new plastic trash bags, defeating the purpose of reusable shopping bags, or find another solution.

The answer was readily available: the various plastic bags we normally discarded – meat packaging, produce bags, etc. With the scarcity of our usual shopping bags, we began to save and reuse these for waste disposal. This small change significantly reduced our overall plastic consumption – we eliminated plastic shopping bags and reused existing plastic for another purpose.

A Real-World Example:

This concept isn't limited to personal experiences. Consider the severe water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa. The city nearly reached "Day Zero" in 2018, meaning the complete shutdown of the public water supply. Residents initially resisted voluntary conservation efforts. However, when faced with the imminent scarcity of water, they dramatically reduced their daily consumption by half, effectively delaying Day Zero indefinitely.  Reference - Netflix video  Explained | World's Water Crisis.

The Path to Sustainability:

Both these examples illustrate how scarcity can promote sustainable practices. Abundant and cheap resources often lead to waste. To achieve true sustainability, we need to cultivate mindful consumption, taking only what we truly need, not what we simply want. Additionally, implementing policies that address resource limitations can be crucial.

While complete scarcity is undesirable, promoting responsible consumption alongside policies that address limited resources is the key to achieving a sustainable future.

Note - the essay was polished by Google Gemini

Birds at Chiang Mai Area

When we were at Doi Inthanon, we could hear bird chirps all round but could barely see any due to the dense leaves in the trees and of course birds' camouflages when they perch on tree branches and between leaves. 

bird chirp on the Kew Mae Pan nature trail

However we did see a few birds in the flight between trees or branches, and managed to capture one bird highlighted at the trailhead - green tailed Sunbird,  on my camera. The green tailed sunbirds are tiny, colorful and restless. We saw them several times, and eventually one of them perched on a branch for a minute or so, I finally took a few photos of it. 

green tailed Sunbird

Interestingly, we saw more birds at the garden house hotel we stayed than in the mountain. The garden  house is truly in a large garden, with a few cabin houses, a pond, many tall trees, some blooming plants and bushes, few people.

The garden House Hotel near Doi Inthanon National Park

The most unique and elegant bird we saw was a black crested bulbul, perching on a branch, near a light colored full blossom. 

a black crested bulbul

There are also whiskered bulbuls, just like what we saw in Singapore.

whiskered bulbul at Chiang Mai old city

There are a few birds that are similar to what I saw before but actually are different species. 

We saw several orioles in the garden - initially mistaken them as black-naped orioles, but turned out to be black hooded oriole  after I zoomed in on the photos! Both orioles have a bright yellow plumage with black color on the head and tail. The black hooded oriole has a black head  and throat, like wearing a black hood, the black-naped oriole has only a strip of black across its eyes from front to  back.

A black hooded oriole

There is at least one more different species of bird  there - crested myna from its Singapore cousin mynas.

a crested Myna

During a breakfast by the pond at the garden house, a tiny bird was hopping around in bushes, from its chirping I suspected that it was an ashy tailorbird. After zoom-in on the picture, it turned out to be a different tailorbird - dark necked tailorbird, both of them are tiny, and have a reddish head. The main difference in appearance between them is the color of plumage - ashy tailorbird is brownish, the dark necked tailorbird is greenish with dark neck or dark throat. As we looked around, a big bird flew in, and landed at a dried up manmade waterfall, I took a picture of it, and it moved a few steps forward and disappeared behind the stones. After breakfast, believing that the bird was resting behind the stones, I walked to where it was, and the big bird was there resting, my footsteps on dry leaves startled it, it flew away. It tuned out that there was an inground water tank there!

A bit further away from the pond, a oriental magpie robin was resting on tree branch after it caught an insect for breakfast, and a streaked Wren-Babbler was foraging in bushes. A couple of other birds I saw at the garden house were common kingfishers and greater racket tailed Drongo.

dark necked tailorbird  - can you see? it has a reddish head

A heron 

An oriental magpie robin with breakfast in its beak

Streaked Wren-Babbler

a common king fisher on a powerline

greater racket tailed Drongo

There are plenty of flowers and fruits in the garden, a perfect environment for birds to live. Since we were the only guests at the garden house during our stay, so we had all the garden for ourselves, thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful place, the tranquility and nature,