Don't you think Singaporeans tend to have this apathetic attitude? Pretty sure majority of Singaporeans believe what the local newspapers say, including the recent report that Singapore is safe from rising sea levels. Well.. check this out then:
This is what a group of NUS students found. Singapore will look like this if the Greenland icesheets melt (and sea-level around Singapore rises by 7m). *editted* This sounds like an extreme case scenario, but look at this piece of news: I quote-
The melting increased by about 30 percent for the western part of Greenland from 1979 to 2006, with record melt years in 1987, 1991, 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2007...Inclusion of the dynamic processes of these glaciers in models will likely demonstrate that the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment underestimated sea-level projections for the end of the 21st century"
Saw this image on a presentation by Prof Wong Poh Poh during a recent talk on climate change and sea-level rise and its implications on coastal management in the Asia Pacific region at the University of Adelaide, Singapore (thanks to BWV mailing list). The vision's pretty haunting don't you think. First thing you think of is.. hmm.. where's my house? ok. never buy a house in the east, next thing i'm thinking.. let's all live on Bukit Timah.. i'm sure it can handle 5million pple. right.
A thought-provoking point by Prof Wong that stayed with me was that maybe we shouldn't take sea-level rise as such a negative thing. Humans are used to living on land. But with more water surrounding us, maybe we should think of ways to live on the sea instead. M felt it pretty ridiculous but I think it's actually a good idea. What say u?
Read more about the issue on WildSingapore.
2 comments:
The IPCC report, if I am not mistaken, was based on "current" research, which means that it did not consider "drastic" situations (like slippage of ice sheets) as probable scenarios. However, the problem with using "current" research, is that the information is old(er), and thus the assumptions and conclusion drawn from it are also of that "age". They were true for 5 years ago, but not for the "now", nor for the "future".
Yeah. Agreed. It's scary to know that there is a real possibility of this 7m scenario happening with all the recent "ice-melt speeding up faster than predicted" news. But then again, pple just brush it off thinking: 'at least it won't happen in my lifetime'. - as a friend commented. :)
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