Hi there, my name is Siu, Kei Tat, whereas Kei Tat is my given name and Siu is my family name. I would prefer myself to be referred as Clement Siu, which is my chosen name since English class at primary school. I was born in Hong Kong, a typical metropolitan that nearly most of the people there are isolated from natural environment by densely constructed high-rise buildings, despite their hectic everyday lives preventing them from getting aware of the nature.

I found myself a bit different from stereotyped Hongkongers, not only because I would consider myself not a city-lover, not enjoying all those man-made entertainment like shopping, tv games, pursuing new brands of fashion and electronic devices, or simply put consumerism, but also be a naturalist loving the natural environment and all creatures it nurtures.

My passion and enthusiasm for natural environment was not came out from nothing, it has been growing bit by bit. Especially thanks to the advancement of technology and high-definition filming, some documentaries and public speeches become easily shareable and disseminated have deeply impacted me and awakened me to “escape the city”. Credits would be given to the most remarkable documentary called “An Inconvenient Truth” [1], released in 2006 “lectured” by former United States Vice President Al Gore, primarily talking about global warming and advocating the exigency of appropriate action. Besides, the message that the movie “Home” ([2], [3], and [4]) brings me is always tremendous and far-reaching. I believe it could definitely help any urbanised citizen get to know how the planet earth (that is our “home”) works perfectly in a designated balance at its outset, and how self-centred anthropogenic activites have been making so many disruption (or I would call them damages) on it, most of them are irreversible or faster than the ecosystems could “repair” themselves. Several public speeches have raised my awareness of environmental justice and human responsibility on earth, like the one given to the conferences of United Nation by Severn Suzuki [5] at 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, while she was age of 13, and Greta Thunberg’s at 2018 UN Climate Change COP24 Conference, while she was age of 15.

So, one day, I decided to come to Australia to study Environmental Science in UniSA to pursue my dream and echo my “calling”. I choose Australia because it has beautiful natural environment with unique biodiversity, and with deep-rooted culture of appreciating, embracing, loving and taking care of the nature. Not only I can learn the knowledge, but also to participate in the field of environmental protection, conservation and advocating events. If any chances are given to me to stay here for life working for the environment, it would be my greatest pleasure.

Joining the Biology Society of South Australia (BSSA) has been one of the important decisions I made. I came to know iNaturalist was through the newsletter of BSSA and by attending the “City Nature Challenge (CNC): Adelaide Training Session” afterwards. CNC impressed and inspired me on how innovative can environmentalist and scientist do – iNaturalist is an advanced mobile app designed for everyone, primarily for ordinary citizens, or simply put laymen, but not only for scientists, academia, to participate in capturing any natural beings that happens to be around them. Taking photos of natural beings, uploading them and then it would be shared immediately and potentially attracting peers to view, review and write comments about it. I believe there must have a “butterfly effect” – even an unnoticeable little sharing, discussion and interaction among people could cause unexpected impacts. I hope we strive to create positive and constructive impacts! I’m still a newbie to iNaturalist, and looking forward to my and all users involvement. Let’s get involved! Let’s participate! The positive and constructive impacts could not count without yours!

If you would like to read further:
[1] “An Inconvenient Truth” basic info (by Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth
[2] “Home” the movie video: http://youtu.be/jqxENMKaeCU
[3] “Home” the movie basic info (by Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_(2009_film)
[4] “Home” project official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject
[5] Severn Suzuki's speech at the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit [ http://youtu.be/oJJGuIZVfLM ]
[6] Greta Thunberg’s speech at 2018 United Nations Climate Change COP24 Conference [ http://youtu.be/VFkQSGyeCWg ]