Exciting Activities and Revised CTAs Coming Your Way! 💥
Dear friend,
We hope you have been doing well so far. As Singapore celebrates her 55th year of independence this year, let us continue to hope and strive for a brighter, more inclusive and sustainable future. With the recent reshuffling of cabinet members and reopening of Parliament still fresh in our minds, we also hope to push for greater change to be undertaken and to see our politicians make more bold and ambitious action in Singapore’s dealings with climate change.
ASEAN also celebrates its 53th founding anniversary this month but a shadow of turmoil and chaos looms overhead. The region is suffering from multiple crises that are heavily impacting the environment as well as millions of people in South East Asia. Thus, an open letter to the ASEAN government initiated by ZeroHour.org seeks to address these issues and demand a regional declaration of a climate emergency, among others. You can sign the open letter here.
To fund the growth of our movement, we have recently set up a Kofi page! For as little as USD$3, you can buy us a coffee to help cover the costs needed to keep things running and add extra perks such as accessibility features! We do not solicit funds or accept donations that may compromise the integrity of our mission and strive for transparency in the use of proceeds. Regardless of the amount you can contribute, we are deeply appreciative of all your support thus far and will continue to dedicate ourselves to fighting for climate action.
Many of us might be experiencing fatigue, eco-anxiety or distress but we hope that this letter will remind you that you are not alone in this journey! This month, in partnership with inspiring individuals from civil society and the environmental space, we launched Activism in Crisis, an online virtual festival. We are grateful for the many stories shared and ideas exchanged and to all those who have journeyed with us along the way, we want to say a big thank you!
May we continue to embrace the comfort we find in community and support each other through these times! For a better world,
W H A T ' S N E W ?
SGCR'S REVISED CALLS TO ACTION (CTA) IN SEPTEMBER
Last year, we organised Singapore’s first climate rally with three CTAs: for the government to face the truth of the climate emergency, combat the crisis with a national climate mitigation plan, and engage the people on the climate crisis. The large turnout for the rally and continued support for our campaigns and events over the past year show that many people support these goals. However, we are still far from achieving the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC)’s recommended goals of peaking our carbon emissions this year, halve them in 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how environmental issues are deeply linked to social justice and inequalities, as seen in how the virus spread quickly among our migrant workers due to poor living and working conditions. This is a stark reminder of how the most vulnerable among us will also be the most deeply impacted by climate change. In light of this, we have broadened our CTAs to reflect this intersectional nature of climate change and make it clear that the green recovery we need must be a just one that leaves no one behind.
We ask you to join us in calling our government and people to Reclaim Pragmatic Growth, Launch a Green Recovery, and bring Power to the People, in September. Stay tuned for more updates and exciting programmes!
C L I M A T E N E W S
THE MONTHLY ROUND-UP
A staggering total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. “To put that in context, every centimetre of sea level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands,” said Professor Andy Shepherd, director of Leeds University’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling. As the white ice layer melts, it exposes the black soil underneath which absorbs more heat energy from the sun. There is little doubt that this devastation is directly related to climate change, thus a bold and daring slash in carbon emissions is more urgent than ever.
Anger and frustration boils in Mauritius as the government fails to duly address the oil spill that now spans 10.4 square miles (about 27 square kilometers). A Japanese-owned oil tanker, the Wakashio, ran aground in July but the Mauritius government did not promptly address the issue, leading to one of Mauritius’ worst environmental disasters in recent decades. “When this leakage started there was a sense of revolt within the population,” said Sunil Mokshanand Dowarkasing, an environmental expert and a former lawmaker. Thousands of volunteers pulled all-nighters trying to skim the water clear of oil. Sadly, this oil spill will cause widespread devastation for the country’s ecological systems such as coral reefs, the sea grass belts and mangroves. If you are interested in donating to the cleanup efforts, here is a link to a fundraiser by Mauritian-based NGO Eco-Sud you could check out!
On a brighter note, construction of a floating solar farm in Tengah Reservoir has begun recently. As one of the world’s largest of its kind, it covers 45 football fields and has a maximum capacity of 60MW. Such solar farms may help “reduce the Republic's dependence on fossil fuels, slash carbon emissions and strengthen national climate resilience.” We are heartened to see inroads being made into clean energy generation, which is critical in the transition towards a more sustainable future, and we hope that further progress can be made towards clean energy occupying a greater proportion of our energy needs.
On top of that, on the 3rd of August, Channel News Asia released a statement outlining their commitment to significant and sustained coverage of climate change. In lieu of this, CNA launched a new section entirely dedicated to climate change featuring regular news reports, short features and long-form documentaries focusing on climate change, especially in Southeast Asia. By regarding climate change as an issue on par with the urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic, which also has a dedicated news section, CNA has signalled to the public that the looming threat of climate change is just as important as the devastating pandemic. This is crucial in bringing climate change to the public consciousness, and we hope that increased public awareness can spur on greater advocacy for combating climate change.
Earlier this month, SGCR conducted our very first online webinar called Climate Crisis 101, a pre-festival module for Activism in Crisis. We made an edited version of “Home”, a National Day Parade song that many of us remember deeply in our hearts as we sing it every year. Here are the lyrics -- sing it in the tune of “Home”. Enjoy~
Verse 1:
Whenever I am feeling warm
I look around me and I know
Global temperatures are rising
Wherever I may choose to go
I will always recall the flooding
Orchard, Yangtze and more
Rising sea levels and low crop yield
Threatening my Singapore
Chorus:
Fossil fuels truly, lead to climate crisis
Industries account for, 60 percent of our carbon emissions
Fossil fuels surely, lead to climate crisis
Singapore ranks 6 in the world, for carbon emission per capita
Verse 2:
Now climate crisis it is true
The hardest hit will be the few
Those that do not have privilege
The old, the poor and vulnerable
So we talk of climate justice
So that we can restore
Dignity, equity in our lives
That should be our Singapore
Chorus:
Fossil fuels truly, lead to climate crisis
Industries account for, 60 percent of our carbon emissions
Fossil fuels surely, lead to climate crisis
Singapore ranks 6 in the world, for carbon emission per capita
Fossil fuels truly, lead to climate crisis
Industries account for, 60 percent of our carbon emissions
Fossil fuels surely, lead to climate crisis
Singapore ranks 6 in the world, for carbon emission per capita
Singapore ranks 6 in the world
Singapore ranks 6 in the world
That’s all for this month folks! Do look forward to September for more exciting things to come!