Afterthoughts: The Interdisciplinary Forum for climate change

By Thet Lin Thu

I went to this climate change panel at school the other day. It was hosted by the student union’s environmental club NUS SAVE (students against violation of Earth).

It mainly focused on professors of different disciplines where they talked about the relation of their particular subject to that of climate change. The main emphasis given by Associate Provost Alan Chan (in the introductory speech) was that we need all professions from different disciplines, not just the sciences but also from the social sciences and humanities, to tackle climate change for climate change is not a scientific problem, but a human problem. I couldn’t agree more on that, it really is a human problem. More specifically, it is a problem of human stupidity and greed.

A guest speaker was there too, the ambassador of Denmark, Vibeke Rovsing Lauritzen. Denmark is quite an exemplary example of reducing carbon emissions and following the Kyoto protocol. From the statistics she showed, Denmark not only reduced its carbon emissions but also increased its economic GDP and other indexes (will state them in full if I get the time later). She was talking about leading institutions should use their formidable education resources to tackle problems of sustainable energy and mentioned the next UN Climate Change Panel at Copenhagen University in 2009.

Then came an introduction by Jeffery Philip Obbard, the deputy head from the department of of environmental science. The topic of the talk was living in the Anthropocene. It was kinda an introductory course of climate change 101, on carbon cycles, water cycles, weather cycles etc and how human activity starting with the industrial revolution has disturbed the delicate natural processes of the planet. He also mentioned many a truthful words: “To me, CO2 is only half the equation”. Prof. Obbard also stressed that it is not only a concern for scientists but also for coporations, industries and economies alike on familiar points like the long term effects on the economy due to climate change in 100 years in the future is going to be drastic if we do not start switching to climate friendly models by now.

Thet next speaker Professor Scott Valentine from the Lee Kuan Yew school of public policy, talked about the root cause of global warming. His talk was very much similar to many of my ideas (and previous posts) on global warming. “Global warming is merely a symptom”, he said and I was nearly going to start applauding at the statement. It is the mass over-consumption of people in developed countries that is causing the problem. And he said that it is also amazing how little this is talked about. That climate change is not only an energy issue, not merely a emission issue, but symptoms and negative feedbacks of a much more fundamental root cause: scarcity. “The world is a closed system, finite.” Another quote which I really liked was “any solution to climate change might also lead to another problem”. Yet another one, “finding replacements for fossil fuel energy only allows excessive consumption to escalate across the board”. There was also mention on the IPAT equation (Impact on environment = Population + Affluence + Technology). Some of his ideas on the solution includes increasing the demographic transition stage in many third world countries. In other words, a long term goal is devised to promote them to first world status so that the population becomes sustainable. Another idea include a population protocol similar to the Kyoto protocol. Personally, I don’t have confidence in those solutions. How long would it take to raise Africa to first world status?

Daniel Goh, another really young professor from the department of sociology came with a recurring theme: that GDP doesn’t tell us everything, namely two things ecological sustainability and quality of life. Essentially, his talk was about the (un)Happpy Planet Index. He stressed on the apathy, lethargy and lack of real democracy of Singapore. I feel that he could be a very connecting public speak due to his youth and knowledge, sprinkling the exact local words such as “sian” for apathy, “kiasuism” for competitive materialism. The social capital for Singaporeans to turn climate friendly is also not there, he said as although you may be enthusiastic about global warming, your friends, neighbors aren’t and the social structure eventually doesn’t place CC at a top priority level. Eventually this passes on to the next generation since parents and the existing social structure doesn’t promote climate friendly ideas. Singaporeans need an average of 3.4 earths for them to be ecologically sustainable.

I think it is a very nice initiative by SAVE. College students are to be considered the elites in terms of intellectuality within society. For along history, it is evident that fundamental development and change was fostered by academic institutions, whether it be political, industrial or purely academic. In other words, education.

I feel that climate change, being such an important and critical issue of this age, needs incredible steps forward in maturity in our socio-econ-political systems. This maturity can only be nurtured by education.

Not just literacy, but higher education of much philosophical depth and comprehension of nature. I don’t necessarily mean it as a scientific comprehension, I meant it more as a sociological concept.

Only when an individual knows how to differentiate “self” and “society” and relate it to intersections of biographies and histories of one’s time (Mills lol) can he/she start to appreciate how important everything around him/her is and how insignificant he/she is. When realization of insignificance sets in, humbleness, humility and most important of all, comprehension, is gained. Such development takes time, effort and mindfulness of self to achieve.

Such ideas need time to formulate and ultimately, I think that the environment matters the most for it is where the basic blocks to play with are available. For the best combination and permutations of basic blocks, higher education is the most appropriate environment that facilitates higher thinking.

Therefore, we need a unified front from all sectors, education, industry, technology and society. For short term goals, economic protocols such as industry and technology will probably be the best solutions. But we need to remember that global warming is a symptom of human immaturity. We have to set long term goals from now by nuturing education and public understanding so that the future generation will gain the social capital to cap human stupidity once and for all.