I felt that the recent Spring Festival was the hottest I've ever experienced. The Hong Kong Observatory confirmed my feelings. It is the hottest Lunar New Year holiday since records began in 1884. The second and the third day of the holidays saw the temperature reach over 25 degrees Celsius.

In our neighboring city of Shenzhen, a man suffered from heatstroke while hiking on the first day of Chinese New Year. The news went viral on the internet. The hashtag, "there is already heatstroke in Guangdong", became one of the most popular on Weibo during the holiday period.

People living in Hong Kong and other cities of Guangdong province may be accustomed to a long summer which often takes the place of autumn. But we certainly do not expect that it will also replace winter.

During the hot Spring Festival, a sci-fi film, The Wandering Earth, took the nation by storm. Based on a best-selling story by one of China's most critically acclaimed novelists, Liu Cixin, the film earned $349 million at China's box office during the first week it was shown. It became the biggest winner among this year's Chinese New Year movies.

In the film, the Earth is on the verge of being destroyed due to the sun dying. People from different parts of the world unite to propel the Earth out of the solar system. It takes 100 generations for the Earth to finally find a new home 4.2 light years away.

Human beings are lucky in the movie. They survive in the end. But in reality, will we be as lucky as those in the film?

Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its latest report that the past four years, 2015 to 2018, have been the warmest on record.

A 2008 news report has come to people's mind during this year's hottest-ever Spring Festival. In the report, the Hong Kong Observatory warned that if global warming continues, there will be no winter in Hong Kong in 2020.

If this is true, we have only 10 months to go before we lose winter.

And we may lose much more. We may lose more land when it is flooded by rising sea levels. We may lose control of our food supply as the eco-system is disrupted by extreme weather. Eventually, we may lose our own lives, then the whole Earth.

If there is a list of what we, as ordinary people, can do to save the planet, I think that what tops the list should be consuming rationally and wisely.

Hong Kong-based NGO Green Peace conducted a survey in 2017 in five regions and countries - Hong Kong, Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Italy and Germany. In each place over 1,000 people were interviewed. The survey found that Hong Kong tops the list when it comes to buying more clothes than necessary, followed by the Chinese mainland.

Data from the Environmental Protection Department showed that in 2017, Hong Kong discarded 1.35 million tonnes of textile products. In 2015, the amount was 1.1 million, which equals 1,400 T-shirts being discarded every minute of the year.

Excessive consumption means more products are made, which leads to even more depletion of resources. And this may intensify the abnormal weather conditions, like the disappearing winter.

What I am saying here is that we should not buy things which are not necessary. Ask yourself every time you feel the urge to buy something: Do I really need this product? Is there anything which I own which is similar to the thing I want to buy and is still usable? Can I make it myself?

By consuming wisely, we can use products which are sustainable, which provide environmental and social benefits over a lifetime - and which do not require excessive packaging.

In The Wandering Earth, scientists, astronauts and engineers team up to save the Earth. In reality, we don't have to be one of these experts to save our planet. You just need to care.

(HK Edition 02/18/2019 page9)