Care Amidst the Climate Crisis 💓
Dear friend,
What does it mean to show care, especially in a time of multiple humanitarian and environmental crises? For March and April, our bimonthly theme of “Care” will explore the different ways we can show concern with all those around us, both human and non-human. We also want to explore the relationship between care and work.
As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on what “Care” means to you. Drop us an email at sg.climaterally@gmail.com or a DM on our Instagram page @sgclimaterally if you would like to contribute an article!
Finally, to ensure you receive all our newsletters (and not have them be redirected to spam), please do move our emails to the ‘primary’ inbox. 💚
Take care and stay safe!
For a better world,
SG Climate Rally
Continuing with our theme of care, our guest writer Lioma Ghossi examines the relationship between the dangers faced by ‘boundary' workers, exacerbated by the destruction of the environment, and environmental justice in their article Precarious Work, Precarious Planet: Servicing Boundaries in/for the Air-Conditioned Nation. Most importantly, beyond the boundaries we create between the insulated and uninsulated world, we must recognise that those living in both worlds are interdependent on each other. Only by protecting the most vulnerable among us will we be able to avoid the harms brought upon us all through the changing climate.
In today’s capitalistic society, the concept of care, originally referring to replenishing one’s well-being, has ironically been transformed into just a stepping stone towards higher productivity. Furthermore, “essential” workers who contribute to the upkeep of society have often received very little care in terms of compensation or support. Read more in Co-opting Care under Capitalism.
♻️🚇🪑 As part of its latest effort to upcycle old train parts, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has collaborated with the Nee Soon Town Council to spruce up Yishun void decks with old MRT seats. Offering residents more spaces to rest, reusing such materials not only offers a practical purpose, but also reduces waste and preserves our iconic train heritage.
🙌🏻📜🌏 Singapore and Indonesia have recently signed a memorandum of understanding about cooperating on climate change and sustainability. This joint venture will allow both countries to work towards attaining their climate goals, in Singapore’s case reaching net-zero by 2050. Such cooperation of the region’s wealthiest and largest countries respectively will perhaps influence others in the region to work even more closely together and reduce the impacts of climate change in an equitable manner.
💰📈🔥 The 2022 World Inequality Report has a section on climate change that shows very clearly how the global rich are most responsible for the climate crisis, as this article summarises. The bottom 50% in both rich and poor countries already live within their 2030 carbon budgets to limit global warming to 1.5ºC, while the top 10% worldwide vastly exceed the limits.
After more than two years, Speakers Corner has finally reopened for protests. On 3 April, from 5-7pm, there will be a protest against the death penalty to pressure the government to grant clemency to Nagen and others who have exhausted their legal appeals, institute a moratorium on executions, and ultimately abolish the death penalty. We encourage all those who support the cause to attend and make your voice heard. Do note that the protest is currently only open to Singaporeans and PRs.
On a lighter note, the editorial team recently did an online ‘art jam’ as one of our regenerative activities, where we did exquisite corpse-style drawings to produce weirdly aesthetic monsters based on a given theme. Have a look at three examples below and see if you can guess what the themes were!
Top left: Greenwashing
Top right: 5 year degree expiry
Bottom: Shell
Have a good month ahead and see you again!