S’poreans Polled Said They’re More Concerned About Climate Change After National Day Rally

By
Neha Joby
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We are all very much aware of how serious climate change is and how we could all be dead in 50 years.

If you’ve watched this year’s National Day Rally, you’d know what we’re talking about. If not, here’s a video we’ve done about the speech, summarised for you:

But, let’s be real, awareness does not always mean that we’re going to do something about it.

Image: tenor.com

However, everything becomes 10 times scarier the moment it hits home. How much danger exactly is Singapore in?

Singapore Needs $100 Billion to Protect Itself from Climate Change

According to a poll conducted by The Straits Times and market research firm Milieu Insight, about 4 in 10 people are more concerned about climate change after watching this year’s National Day Rally.

Climate change was one of the key issues that PM Lee highlighted in the rally, where he talked about how around $100 billion would be necessary to protect Singapore from rising sea levels.

That’s a lot of money.

He also mentioned some of the measures that Singapore could adopt to ensure that they were more prepared for climate change, such as protecting individual developments and building more coastal defences.

This includes having elevated entrances for MRT stations and building a second pump house at Marina Barrage.

Rising sea levels

The Straits Times also interviewed a total of 100 Singaporeans and one of them, Mr Ow Wenxuan, said: “It is really sad to see that climate change might one day result in Singapore’s coastline being washed away if we do nothing else to stop it.”

Some areas in Singapore are more at-risk than others, like areas between the East Coast and the city because they are more vulnerable to sea-level rise.

I guess the Eastside is no longer the best side.

Image: NParks

Apart from the East Coast, Jurong Island is also high at risk of being affected pretty badly.

According to the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR), these areas are up to 4m above sea level and will increasingly be at risk when sea levels rise, as reported by TODAYonline.

Singaporeans are concerned

Ms Elise Khaw, a 28-year-old private tutor, told The Straits Times that she hopes the $100 billion would be “invested in the right place, for the best effect.”

She went on to add that more needs to be done in Singapore to encourage people to recycle or reduce their reliance on plastic bags.

Ms Shuqi Gurala, 36, is also concerned about the future of Singapore and she feels that the government needs to do more to raise awareness among the public of environmentally friendly practices.

“From a young age, we have been taught in school to reduce, reuse and recycle, but we have never really been taught how to incorporate those habits into our lives,” she said.

Luckily, some Singaporeans have already started cultivating more eco-friendly lifestyle habits.

Image: NEA

“I made changes to my lifestyle, such as taking my own bottles to work instead of using disposable cups and using an eco-friendly bag in place of plastic bags,” said Zoh Simin, 29.

Oh well, have you?

According to a survey done by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) earlier on in the year, 60% of Singaporeans recycle regularly. The most common way for them to recycle was to make use of the blue recycling bins, with most of them doing so at least once a week.

Image: Reddit

There is still a long way to go before Singapore can fully embrace sustainable living, but I’ve got to admit that there is certainly a lot of improvement.

Our continuous efforts to be a more eco-friendly nation, along with the 100 billion dollars, just might be able to save our country after all.

(Or if not, we can all just move to Mars.)

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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Neha Joby
Email: [email protected]