One of my first posts on this blog wondered how much Singaporeans think about climate change. When I was in secondary school I was exasperated by how many of my classmates confused the depleting ozone layer with the greenhouse effect. If I expected Singaporean “adults” to know better, I was in for a rude shock because they knew even less. After a while, I just avoided the topic of environmentalism entirely because to further uncover into the widespread ignorance was to put myself into depression. So for a decade and a half (I first took to heart environmentalism and James Lovelock when I was 13 years old, I read so much) it was just a small personal passion until An Inconvenient Truth brought environmental concern into the mainstream, at least in the US.

Overnight, suddenly: VINDICATION!

All the times I expressed guilt or refused to turn on the air-conditioner, now, vindication!

All the times I recycled my paper and plastic and metal despite hell and high-water and lack of recycling bins – vindication!

My refusal to learn to drive a car so that I could never own a car – vindication! At long last!

Anyways, theonlinecitizen blogged: Climate change – the other terrorism facing Singapore. It’s a little handy introduction for any Singaporeans unfamiliar with climate change and with the damage it could cause to the country. The issue is hardly negligible for a tiny island country so small, so low-lying, so dependent upon its neighbours for life-sustaining resources like food and water. Isn’t this a good time for the government to rethink its policy of wanting to increase the population of the country to 6.5 million?

(Singapore already has a larger population than Chicago, I was surprised to learn.)

As mentioned in my comment, I wonder if the Singapore government has been chasing long-term economic survival and success so long that, like its citizens, it has no time or room left over to question environmental survival. Singapore, ha, after all, is so small that it has little in land and natural resources. I’ve long wondered, and tried to justify in my head, the government’s policies as trying to enrich the country enough that it could buy its way out of any problems that arise. But in a world that is facing the real possibility of more and more natural calamities, how much will money be able to buy? It’s a real question of self-sufficiency and security, of food security, of energy security and possibly water security. (Does Singapore have enough water desalinization plants?)

I’d like to think we have finally reached the global and environmental awareness needed to see that these aren’t just moonbat questions. While there may one day be enough awareness to inspire grassroots and individual efforts at permaculture (even in urban Singapore, I think it’s possible), I wonder if the gatekeepers are imaginative or brave enough to really allow, much less encourage, a radically environmentally-centered lifestyle in Singapore. I’ll know Singapore has matured in environmentalism when it becomes more consumer-aware, embraces environmental architecture that will make obsolete air-conditioning, when it foregoes chemical plant care and chemical mosquito fumigation for safer alternatives; and actually recognizes Singapore’s vast potential for green roofing.

I can only blog and hope.