GREENWATCH at home with us! 🌏
Dear friend,
We hope you have been keeping well and staying safe during this second leg of our circuit breaker period. SGCR has adapted to take most of our activism and workshops online, so we sincerely thank you for your continuous support.
This month, we successfully completed a run of our very first online workshop—the COVID-19 x Climate Workshop—which aimed to explore parallels between the two crises in terms of their impacts on our vulnerable communities. We often hear phrases like “the virus doesn’t discriminate”. Well, the climate crisis doesn't either, but our policies do. We need to treat the climate crisis and the COVID-19 crisis with the same level of commitment and comprehensiveness.
Firstly, we need to listen to science. For the pandemic, it’s about maintaining good hygiene standards, minimising contact by staying home, and wearing a mask when we step outside of the house. Similarly, the climate crisis calls for swift and decisive action to reduce our carbon emissions and end our reliance on fossil fuels. Much like how scientists are working to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, we should be pumping in more resources for R&D in renewable energy.
Secondly, we need to act early in a crisis. The climate crisis, just like the pandemic, does not wait for anyone. We need to act now before it’s too late. Every second of inaction that passes by will lead to more destruction in the future.
Despite the fact that the symptoms and effects of the climate crisis remain invisible, this by no means insinuates that it is less important than the pandemic. Ultimately, we should strive for a transformative and structural change that will create a liveable planet for all.
As the editors at Academia.SG so pertinently put it: "Our wellbeing and suffering—today, next week, in ten years, at the next crisis—rests heavily on how we are organized as societies. How societies distribute things, make decisions, and deal with divergent interests and conflicts—we now see more clearly than before that variations across societies are not merely theoretical, but matters of life and death." At this moment of reckoning, we must seriously evaluate and reimagine the policies, structures, and systems that govern us. Let us keep our heads and hopes high and rally to co-create the future with our political leaders.
Lastly, as we progress through these trying times, remember those who are struggling and send love where you can! Visit AidHub SG to find out more about how you can help during this crisis.
For a better world,
U P C O M I N G E V E N T S
SAVE THE DATES!
Join SG Climate Rally for our second online workshop — 'Eco-Anxiety Conversations' on 6th June 2020 (Saturday) from 2pm to 3.30pm!
Find out how to centre feelings of grief, anger, and hopelessness in the face of environmental destruction. If you have been struggling with 'eco-anxiety' or if you want to find out more, spend a Saturday with us.
If you are unable to make it for this session but would like to be kept in the loop regarding any future sessions, please feel free to register and fill out the form as well.
W H A T ' S N E W ?
GREENWATCH CLIMATE SCORECARD RELEASE
This month, the Greenwatch campaign, jointly organised by SG Climate Rally and Speak For Climate, released its Climate Scorecard for the incumbent government — a resource for voters who wish to be better informed about parties' climate ambitions.
In it, the government’s climate policy earned a score of +8 out of a maximum of +90 and minimum of -90.
Another resource—the Policy Brief—outlines several suggestions which parties can incorporate into their manifestos, or pledge their support for, during elections.
Visit our website to view the different versions that have been created to be accessible to persons who have difficulty reading and understanding written information and/or persons with visual disabilities.
LET'S GREENWATCH TOGETHER!
visit our instagram to see the full image
Consult our list of questions to #AskYourCandidate! We hope to encourage voters to engage in ongoing climate advocacy efforts, as well as to demonstrate to political parties that there is grassroots support among their voters for a stronger climate policy.
Do your part for the climate today — #AskYourCandidate about climate policy through social media, email, letters, or in-person engagements, once the moratorium is lifted.
Voters who have done so are encouraged to record their efforts through screenshots, photographs, or videos, and post them to social media using the hashtag.
We also hope you caught the Greenwatch webinar held on 24 May which saw panelists from environmental groups discuss the climate scorecard, environmental civil society, and ways to make climate change a more salient issue in the upcoming elections. If not, a summary of the discussion is available on our social media pages.
Stay tuned as Greenwatch will be releasing more resources and Climate Scorecards for other parties in Singapore once the GE is announced!
S G C R W R I T E S. . .
EATING CHILLI CRAB IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
SGCR's very own Bertrand Seah wrote an illuminating chapter on 'Another Garden City is Possible: A Plan for Post-Carbon Singapore'. In it, he lays out a comprehensive policy vision of Singapore beyond fossil fuels, arguing for decarbonisation of our transport, energy, and finance industries and embracing degrowth.
One of our allies, Aidan Mock, also contributed an outstanding piece illustrating Singapore’s historical relationship with the fossil fuel industry and explores our reliance on it today.
Their work is to be published in ‘EATING CHILLI CRAB IN THE ANTHROPOCENE’, a collection of essays about the climate crisis written by a group of young activists. The book is currently available for pre-order so do pick up a copy and support the efforts of these writers!
C L I M A T E N E W S
THE MONTHLY ROUND-UP
A recent report published by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia states that the current measures put in place to control the spread of COVID-19, such as working from home, could alter energy consumption patterns after the pandemic and facilitate a low-carbon future.
They also recommend that Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should seize new investment opportunities with stimulus packages for enhancing regional energy security, resilience, and climate change objectives.
However, experts also warn that regional aspirations for a swift transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy are likely to be dashed by the economic and market crises triggered by the global virus outbreak.
Southeast Asian nations already struggling to meet climate change targets will find those goals further from reach, with the unprecedented health emergency becoming the principal priority and a major economic burden. Hence, it is critical for governments not to lose sight of the longer-term goal in preventing the climate crisis by implementing strong economic recovery programs rooted in climate justice.
I N T H E S P O T L I G H T
#SMILEFORSOLIDARITY
A local migrant worker rights activist, Jolovan Wham posted a photo of himself holding up a smiley face sign in solidarity with two youths who were investigated by the police for posting photos regarding Fridays4Future, a global climate protest movement. Currently, more than 100 people have submitted photos in solidarity with them. (The photo has since become a meme format :p)
We are also heartened to see so many signatures for the petitioning of opting out from receiving the NDP 2020 funpack!
However, we hope that Singaporeans would join us in calling for greater action beyond reducing single-use plastic consumption. Waste is only one component of urgent environmental issues that we are facing today.