Post Four

Climate change is a longstanding global issue that has been devastating our ecosystems and our communities, yet today it is garnering more attention than usual. As of November 2019, Climate.gov states that “Global mean sea level has risen about 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880, with about a third of that coming in just the last two and a half decades”. So the question becomes: What is being done about reducing sea levels, and what else can be done? Well, that answer can be different for the individual and the bigger corporation/government. At the individual level, the non-profit Clean Ocean Action claims that you can help by looking at your energy, paper, and carbon footprints. Today there are a lot of people who have smaller carbon footprints: those who have a diet without meat (vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian), or who take Uber carpools, or who access rideshare groups using the internet. European countries such as Sweden and Germany have found success in their government controlled recycling programs, and today in Western society people are more concerned with sustainability than ever, with the growing popularity of electric cars, reusable bags, metal straws, and water bottles.

World leaders have been criticized for”failing” future generations with their few actions towards fixing the situation, which has led to the prominence of climate protesters such as Greta Thunberg and the Youth Climate Strike Coalition. U.S. Presidential Election Democratic election frontrunner Bernie Sanders offers his version of the Green New Deal, which is proposed to “transform our energy system to 100 percent renewable energy and create 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis”. In 2015, there was a United Nations-sanctioned pledge on reducing climate change called the Paris Agreement, in which world leaders aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to only 35.6°F above pre industrial levels. There is proposed to be a 97-98% consensus that humans cause global warming among scientists and world leaders.

Singapore is home to many great environmental groups such as The People’s movement to Stop Haze, which was created following the worst Singaporean haze of all time in 2013, and the Waterways Watch Society, which keeps the water of the city state clean and well preserved. Singapore has an economy that is largely based off of factory production, and it is also a city-state, so one could see how pollution and environmental issues would be at the front of everyone’s mind there.

While the international environmental group Greenpeace is not directly involved in Singapore, they have offices in Malaysia (which Singapore is right of the coast of) and also in Singapore’s relatively close neighbors of Indonesia and Thailand. Greenpeace has somewhat been involved in Singapore however, as one of their iconic sailing ships the Rainbow Warrior visited the island as a part of its Climate Action Tour. In Southeast Asia, Greenpeace has been a big part of the “Break Free From Plastic”movement located in the Philippines, which holds beach cleanups and offers an online brand audit kit. Greenpeace also played a role in a protest against the Thai Union Headquarters in Bangkok to challenge the group for their practices surrounding fair labor and the protection of the ocean from things like fishing for the canned tuna industry. Lastly, Greenpeace taunted massive Singapore-based agribusiness group Wilmar International by asking them “Wilmar: protection or destruction?” referring to the potential forest destruction that they were deciding at a oil palm concession in Jambi, Indonesia.

Soren Larson is an Associate Professor of Geography at Mizzou who has devoted a large portion of his life for the wellbeing of an indigenous group in British Columbia, Canada. In his early 20s, he learned the unique perspective of the Cheslatta Indian tribe while working on his senior thesis project for college. The natives believed that their territory had agency, it had power and personality, and that Cheslatta Lake spoke and taught them about their ancestors. At first Larson couldn’t conceptualize this mindset because Western culture doesn’t have the same strength connection with a specific piece of land (with the exception of maybe places like graveyards or places of worship or historical significance). As Larson continued to return to Canada over future summers, he came to understand agency as he watched the effect that the land had on its people, and how sad it was when the land was ruined by flooding. I agree with him that agency is a very deep topic, and I understand and can sympathize with the emotions of the Cheslatta and other indigenous groups.