Freak incidents or new normal?

Dear friend,

Wherever you are, we hope you have been keeping safe despite the extreme weather conditions. The heatwaves, floods, and storms are a reminder that if we do not fight for climate action, this will be the new normal, and not just freak incidents.

For the past month, we wrapped up our 'Queer' editorial theme by featuring two queer activists on their journey and motivations, as well as how climate organisations can support their work. We will now move on to our next theme, 'Myths, Migrants, and Monsoons'. Do look out for our post explaining the theme, and as always, we welcome contributions!

Do also check out our post about the public consultation on the draft Carbon Pricing Bill, which ends on 5 August 2022, Friday, at 5 pm. We invite you to give your feedback, and have provided a brief explainer on the issues at hand as well as a draft template for submitting your feedback! We at SGCR believe everyone can play a part in shaping our policies and strive to make such feedback exercises as accessible as possible.

Have a great August!

For a better world,
SG Climate Rally

In line with our theme, Queer, and in the wake of Pink Dot, SGCR interviewed two queer activists, Sherry, a Malay-Muslim transgender sex worker from sex workers’ rights group Project X, and Lune from the LGBTQ+ community, on the motivations behind their activism, challenges they have faced so far in the journey, what they’d like to see moving forward, and how climate activists can be allies to their respective communities.

Read the full article here.

We also published a guest article by a fellow climate activist Alifah, from the Indonesian climate group Jaga Rimba, about the links between beauty standards and environmental justice. With the increased consumption of beauty products to achieve a desired ‘ideal’ beauty standard, such products often contain chemical substances that contribute to the degradation of the environment as they are extracted as well as when the products are eventually disposed of. Workers in the beauty industry also face health hazards from exposure to these toxic ingredients. 

Read the full article here.

Global

July has seen heat waves spread across the world, from China to Europe and the US. Cities all over China issued heat alerts, while forest fires raged all over Europe, including in the UK, where temperatures over 40℃ were recorded for the first time in history. Southwest and the central US suffered the brunt of the heatwave, with many daily temperature records broken. 

Heat waves are becoming more frequent, intense, and long-lasting due to climate change. While the level of warming has, on average, stayed within predictions of climate models, the number of extreme events like the current heat wave has started becoming more common. This may, in turn, have knock-on effects. For example, more intense and prolonged heat waves lead to greater melting of snow and ice in mountainous areas of China, causing flash floods and greater risks of dam failure.

Singapore has been spared the worst of these heat waves thus far as it is not directly affected by the weather phenomena causing these extreme heat waves. However, experts predict that the weather phenomena causing heat waves in the region are becoming more frequent, resulting in higher-than-normal temperatures in Singapore.

And in other news, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin - a key swing vote in the Senate - after previously saying that he would not support legislation aimed at addressing climate change, did a U-turn and announced that he backed a bill to raise corporate taxes, fight climate change, and lower prescription costs. The bill contains roughly US$370bn dedicated to climate policies that would help the US lower its carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. If all Democrats in the Senate vote for the bill, it will be passed.

Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Google’s cloud computing arm, Google Cloud, launched the Point Carbon Zero Programme to drive the growth of climate fintech solutions. Meanwhile, sovereign wealth fund GIC has set up a dedicated sustainability office to deepen their research into sustainability issues and integrate sustainability into their investment decisions. They also said that they would not set a net-zero target, saying that it did not seem like a ‘good way’ to fight climate change, and preferred to invest in green technology and engage with companies to transition to sustainable practices.

The Centre for Climate Research Singapore has set up a $23.5 million programme called the ‘Climate Impact Science Research Programme’ to study the long-term impact of climate change by bringing together climate impact science research. The Public Service Commission (PSC) also announced that from 2023 onwards, there would be a new category of PSC scholarships focusing on the field of sustainability.

With reports about heat waves dominating the screens and what seems to be a never-ending deluge of news about climate doom, you can be forgiven for feeling a bit lost and wondering what you can do to fight climate change. Or maybe you feel using a paper straw is a bit useless when celebrities use their private jets to jet around on flights that last less than 20 minutes.

As Emma Marris argues in this op-ed in The New Republic, individualism can only go so far. Collective action can — and must — be the way forward. By organising as citizens, you can do much more in shaping legislation and advocating for climate policies than you can ever do alone. There is a range of methods for climate organisations, and you may be stuck in deciding which to join — Marris suggests just diving in and joining a group that looks appealing, and through that, gaining exposure to other organisations (SGCR is always open!).

On a similar note, at our Nature Club discussion last week we looked at two dystopian stories of the future: Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and N. K. Jemisins’ response to it, The Ones Who Stay and Fight. We talked about the different approaches to dealing with injustice in both stories, and also the various roles we all can play in the social change ecosystem (this is a useful guide!).

But what more can climate organisations do? Despite a wave of renewed climate activism across the globe, we see worsening disasters and ever-increasing carbon emissions. In previous editions of the newsletter, we have mentioned Andreas Malm’s prescription in How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which relooks the non-violent methods of activism pursued by climate activists so far, and instead argues that the sabotage of fossil fuel facilities should be considered as the next stage.

Theo Riofrancos, in a review of Malm’s book, notes that while Malm asserts that such action is justified because the ‘least responsible’ are the ‘most vulnerable’ to climate change, there is a need to specify who these groups are, as without identification of these groups, there is no rallying call for collective action. She also argues that Malm minimises activists who erect blockades in anti-pipeline protests. She also cautions that while Malm’s notion that radical actions such as sabotage may legitimise other acts of activism that are moderate by comparison, there need to be many other forms of peaceful protest for this tactic to work. In short, radical acts may mobilise the masses, but organising them is harder.