Given the complex nature of various environmental issues, the solutions going forward require an increasingly cross-disciplinary approach that can weave together different perspectives. University education all over the world has to move in that direction.

One such example is The National University of Singapore’s Masters in Environmental Management (MEM) degree. It is the first interdisciplinary post-graduate program within the university (and perhaps one of the very few in Asia) that brings together various disciplines such as Arts and Social Sciences, NUS Business School, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science and the School of Design and Management.

The 10th Anniversary celebrations of MEM on December 15th and 16th, 2011 were opened by Associate Prof Lye Lin Heng, Chair, MEM Programme Management Committee, with the welcome address by Prof Heng Chye Kiang, Dean, School of Design and Environment, and a speech by Prof. Tan Eng Chye, Provost, NUS. 

NUS MEM 10th Anniversary Celebrations Special Guests

1. Professor Heng Chye Kiang ,Dean,School of Design and Environment, NUS  2. Professor Nicholas Robinson, University Professor for the Environment with the School of Law, Pace University, and Adjunct Professor with the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, US 3.Mr Kamal Malhotra, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Malaysia and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam 4.Associate Professor Lye Lin Heng, Chair, MEM Programme Management Committee (Faculty of Law), NUS  5.Professor Tommy Koh, Chair, MEM Advisory Committee, NUS  6.Professor Tan Eng Chye,Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, NUS 7.Professor George Ofori, Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, NUS

Prof Lye outlined the journey and the inspiration behind the MEM programme as a ‘bottom-up’ initiative from faculty members interested in environmental issues. This interest has been sustained and several faculty members are also part of the new Bachelors of Environmental Studies (BES) programme.

Mr Kamal Malhotra, who was the Guest of Honour lay his faith on Asia’s strength and resilience which was evident in the face of economic crisis. Climate change affects us all, and he hoped that Rio 20+ meeting would yield something more concrete than the COP17 climate conference at Durban. He also wished for Singapore to contribute to the Climate Development Fund.

Prof Nicholas Robinson

The keynote speech was delivered by Prof Nicholas Robinson, University Professor for the Environment, School of Law, Pace University, New York, and Adjunct Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, USA.

By 2025, South East Asian cities will hold 225 million people, about 60% of national populations.  While cities are centres of innovation, industry and commerce, they also lack elements of sustainable development, such as potable water, sanitation, housing, and even the measures to attain sustainability.  Prof Robinson urged the importance of “embracing sustainability as a holistic concept, not as one anti-thetical to development, but rather being the foundation of socio-economic wellbeing. Major companies have a sustainability manager next to the president or CEO, and mayors of cities needed to do likewise to take the leadership role in making cities sustainable.  Along with honest and open governance, insurance systems to protect from environmental damage, market reforms to support sustainability, Prof Robinson also touched on the need to further public education about sustainability. One way to do this was through formal education, such as the MEM or the BES programme of NUS.  Informal education, through public participation of environmental impact assessments were also important.

MEM’s 10th Anniversary Commemorative book was also launched on the day. Entitled “Environment and Climate Change in Asia” and compiled by Prof Victor R Savage and Prof Lye Lin Heng.  This was a welcome addition to a small but growing body of literature, both online and offline on environmental issues in Asia.

Environment and Climate Change in Asia: Book Launch

NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost Professor Tan Eng Chye, Associate Professor Lye Lin Heng from the NUS Faculty of Law, and Professor Victor Savage from the Department of Geography at the launch of the commemorative book titled “Environment and Climate Change in Asia: Ecological Footprints and Green Prospects” .

Share/Save

A very belated Happy and Green New Year to all our readers.  This is our first post for 2012. Like last year we start with the key environmental (and related) events in the months ahead.

We also take the opportunity to thank our team of Guest Writers for their wonderful perspectives so far and look forward to more in the coming months.  A special thanks to Bharathi Shiva, who has been helping us a lot with editorial work, and to Paul Schattenberg,  for his tremendous IT assistance despite a busy schedule.

And of course, we would love to acknowledge you, our dear reader, for your continued support.  We are much encouraged by the warm feedback we get from you and that is really what keeps us going!  As always, we would be happy to hear your suggestions and comments by email or through social media.

As we said last year:

“The dates we have compiled are found on several sites. Some are well known, and some came as a surprise to us as well. We do believe, no matter who or where you are, everyday is a day of celebration. Every day is a day for our dear planet Earth – for us to respect, conserve and manage her precious resources in a sustainable way. Every day is a day for peace and compassion.”

If we’ve missed out any important dates below, do let us know and we’ll be glad to add them in.  We found quite a few new ones and have updated the list for your benefit and interest. Here it is:

JANUARY

• January 1        :      New Year’s Day, Global Family Day for peace and sharing
• January 4        :      World Braille Day 

• February 2      :      World Wetlands Day
• February 4      :      World Cancer Day 
• February 20   :       World Day of Social Justice 
• February 21   :       International Mother Language Day

• March 8           :       International Women’s Day
• March 14         :       International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life
• March 21        :        World Forestry Day
• March 22        :        World Water Day
• March 23        :        World Meteorological Day
• March 26        :        Earth Hour

• April 4             :        International Day for Mine Awareness and Asssistance in Mine Action
• April 7             :       World Health Day 

• April 22           :       Earth Day
• April 29           :       Arbor Day ( Different nations have different tree planting days )

• May 12            :        World Fair Trade Day (2^nd Saturday of May)
• May 14-15     :        International Migratory Bird Day  (Second Weekend                                           each May)
• May 22           :        International Day for Biological Diversity (Theme for                                           2012: Marine  Biodiversity)

• June 5            :        World Environment Day  (Theme for 2012: Green Economy)
• June 8            :        World Oceans Day
• June 15          :        Global Wind Day

• June 17         :         World Day to Combat Desertification
• June 20         :         World Refugee Day
• June 15-18   :         Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum

• July 10          :         International Happiness Day
• July 11           :        World Population Day

• August 9       :          International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
• August 12     :          World Youth Day
• August 19     :          World Humanitarian Day
• August 26     :         World Kitchen Garden Day
• August 29     :         International Day Against Nuclear Tests

• September  15:     International Coastal Cleanup Day (3^rd Saturday of September)
• September 8     :    International Literacy Day
• September 2     :    International Day of Peace
• September 2     :    World Car-Free Day
• September 29  :    World Heart Day

• October 1           :     World Vegetarian Day
• October 2           :     International Day of Non-Violence
• October 3           :     World Habitat Day
• October 4           :     World Animal Day
• October 15         :     International Day of Rural Women
• October  16        :     World Food Day
• October 27        :      World Paper Free Day

• November 1       :      World Vegan Day
• November 19    :      World Toilet Day
• November 21    :      World Fisheries Day
• November 23/24   :      Buy Nothing Day  (Friday after Thanksgiving Day in US and the day after internationally)

• December 9     :    International Day against Corruption
• December 10  :    Human Rights Day and International Animal Rights Day
• December 11   :    International Mountain Day (for Indigenous peoples)

Meat Free Days are a campaign to encourage a meat free diet one day a week, usually Mondays or Wednesdays. The purpose is to reduce human induced climate change, improve animal welfare and human health. Singapore’s green groups have launched a Veggie Thursday campaign.

Share/Save

The information (as obtained from their website and conference brochure) is published here:

The NUS Multi-disciplinary Masters in Environmental Management Programme (MEM) is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. The M.Sc.in Environmental Management (MEM) Programme, offered by the National University of Singapore (NUS) was launched in July 2001.

In celebration of the Programme’s 10th Anniversary, a conference on the theme, “Sustainable Environmental Management in Urban Asia”, will be held on 15-16 December 2011, at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House, NUS.

To download the full brochure with details of the conference speakers and topics, please click here.

Registration can be done online here. There is an early bird discount for those who register before Nov 30, 2011.  Teachers in educational institutions get the same as NUS staff, and all students only pay $130. 

From the conference brochure:

2007 a milestone was attained in demographic history. The world became officially ‘urban’ – 50 percent of the global population was classified as living in urban areas. This is significant in two ways:

• Firstly the speed at which urbanization has become the norm of living globally. The first cities in human history were only formed some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago and the first urban country, Britain, was a recent phenomenon in 1900.
• Secondly, the global population is expanding rapidly and this means a significant demographic shift. In 2011, the global population hit 7 billion, so over 3.5 billion people are now living in urban areas.

The MEM is a multi-disciplinary integrated programme, which provides education in environmental management to senior and mid-level managers and officers in corporations, institutions and government, and non-governmental organizations. The programme equips graduates with the necessary knowledge to properly manage the environment and to deal with the challenges of an environmentally conscious society and international market. It enables them to assume responsible and influential roles to make sound decisions that support sustainable development. The programme is jointly offered by seven faculties and schools in the NUS, demonstrating its broad-based approach to education in the field of the environment. These are: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; Faculty of Engineering; Faculty of Law; Faculty of Science; NUS Business School; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; and School of Design and Environment (host faculty). The programme has links with Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

The main component of the MEM programme is a group of seven Core Modules: Business and Environment; Environmental Economics and Public Policy; Environmental Law; Environmental Management and Assessment; Environmental Planning; Environmental Science; and Environmental Technology. Candidates must also complete either: (i) a Dissertation; or (ii) a Study Report and an Elective Module. The third component of the MEM programme is the Seminar Series. Candidates must attend a minimum of ten specially arranged seminars, and complete a report on the series.

The MEM programme can be undertaken either Full-Time or Part-Time. Full-time students can complete the programme in one academic year; and Part-time students can complete it in two academic years. The students of the MEM programme come from a variety of disciplines and from both the public and private sectors. They include architects, engineers, scientists, veterinary surgeons, lawyers, teachers, health workers, journalists, and forest and park managers. About half of each year’s cohorts are Singaporeans, permanent residents or foreigners working in Singapore, while the rest are from abroad. The countries include: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

To register for the Conference, please click here.

Share/Save

Here’s a video recording of some of the hightlights of the Earth Day celebrations at Bottle Tree Park on 22nd April 2011

From the previous post:

A lot of excitement is building up at Bottle Tree Park, Singapore owing to the hectic preparations being done by Tay Lai Hock, the Founder of Ground-Up Initiative and a team of volunteers for Earth Day on 22nd April 2011.

Here’s a prelude to the event:

The flyer to the event is as below. For more details do look at the Earth Day Singapore 2011 website



More information about Earth Day:

According to the Earth Day Network,

“The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.”

MNN: In honor of Earth Day’s 41st anniversary, MNN takes an animated look back at the past four decades of U.S. environmentalism in this video.

ABC: April 22nd 1970 First Earth Day

National Geographic: Earth Day Facts: When It Is, How It Began, What To Do

Share/Save

Thomas Friedman, one of the world’s most influential columnists with The New York Times, with a following of over 20 million readers, and best-selling author of “Hot, Flat and Crowded” was in town (Singapore) yesterday to give an interesting lecture on “Why We Need a Green Revolution.”

He was invited by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP),  one of Asia’s leading thinktanks, and introduced to the audience by the Dean of the School, Dr Kishore Mahbubani.  Dr Mahbubani himself is a well known public figure in the region, and author of books such as “Can Asians Think” and “Beyond the Age of Innocence.”  He commenced the night with a sober note, “We are facing the biggest challenge in human history. The Earth is in distress. We don’t know what to do, and how to do it.”

Friedman asserted that though Hot, Flat and Crowded prima facie talks of energy and the environment, it is essentially about America rediscovering its ‘groove’ as a global leader by addressing the major and pressing problems of the world.

Hot is the planet warming up with increasing human made greenhouse gas emissions in the thin atmosphere that blankets it.  Flat is a globalised and interconnected world, where rising middle classes aspire for higher “America –like’” consumption standards. Crowded is because our population is going to balloon to 9 billion by 2050, with higher per capita consumption, and more pressure on the finite resources of the earth.

Here are some of the main points he brought out in his talk to an audience of about a thousand invited by the LKYSPP.

• The environmental crisis and the financial crisis are flip sides of the same problem.  2007-2010 was when the markets and Mother Nature hit the wall, an early warning heart attack that we are growing unsustainably -financially and ecologically.
• The world is seeing a never ending growth loop which is clearly unsustainable and has to be broken. Friedman explained it thus:

More and more factories built in China –> More and more stuff produced –> More and more coal used (with emissions) –>More and more dollars for China  –>More and more Treasury Bills issued by the US –>More and more factories in China…and back again to the loop.

• The fundamental problems in both financial markets and in Mother Nature are due to three fold reasons. We are

1. Underpricing Risk (such as credit risk in subprime mortgage or the risk of carbon molecules in fossil fuel emissions)
2. Privatising Gain ( Profits accrue to owners of capital who benefit from financial markets, or due to cheap oil and coal)
3. Socialising Losses ( If things blow up, the taxpayer bears the losses through bailouts, and our children and future generations pay the consequences of disruptive climate change)

• There is a larger ‘values breakdown’ in society.  We have moved from sustainable values that used to be the basis for relationships, communities, business and politics, to situational values of the baby boomer generation. Ploughing up hundreds of acres of biodiverse Amazon rainforest to plant soyabean, is an example of situational value which places financial gain over long term sustainable value – which would dictate that this is the wrong thing to do.This is dangerous, because both markets and Mother Nature are fiercesome, cruel and unemotional when it comes to excesses. According to Friedman, if we don’t find a more sustainable way we will be ‘less free than if the Soviet Union had won the cold war.’

• Friedman sees five megatrends that impact the world tremendously:

-          Supply and Demand of Energy and Natural Resources. Demand is increasing at a mind boggling rate, with the rise of new consumerist middle classes in China and India and other nations. In two cities he had visited – Doha in Qatar and Dalian in China, another ‘Manhattan’ had sprung up in a span of only three years.  This kind of development has staggering implications for resource and energy use. Friedman calls this the problem as ‘Too Many Americans.’ If the whole world caught up with American consumption rates, it would mean an equivalent of 72 billion people on this planet.

-          The impact on Petropolitics is the clear inverse relationship between the price of oil and the political freedom in the major oil exporting nations – which is graphed by the ‘Freedom Index’ By increasing our demand for fossil fuels, we are indirectly supporting petrodictatorships in these countries.

-          Climate Change as an issue is so polluted by climate deniers, he prefers not to use the term Global Warming using ‘Global Wierding’ instead. This is because the result of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is going to be increasingly extreme, frequent, and violent weather patterns.

In a tongue-in-cheek way, Friedman says he prefers to be like “Dick Cheney” during the Iraq war, who said “if there is 1% chance that nuclear weapons are found in Iraq, it would irreversible and catastrophic.”
Likewise he says, “If there is even 1% chance that what climate scientists say is true, it would be irreversible and catastrophic for the planet.”

-          Energy Poverty is something 1.6 billion people on this planet face as they are not connected to electric grid. This is going to leave behind a vast part of the population behind, as they have inadequate access to water, education, and technology.

-          Biodiversity Loss is happening at an unprecedented rate. We are facing the fastest rate of extinction since the age of the dinosaurs – about 1 new species every 20 minutes disappears, which is about 1000 times the background rate of extinction.

Friedman asserts that all these 5 problems can be solved by the “Green Revolution” by finding a way to produce “abundant, cheap, clean and reliable electrons” and the country which does that will get the most global respect. He wants that country to be America, as he thinks this is the only way that clean technology and energy will scale up with the speed required to solve the global crisis.  It’s not going to be ‘easy’ – a revolution implies suffering and radical change. At the moment, the world is seeing is only incremental and small scale change – or to put it more cynically, “we’re all having a big green party.”

According to Friedman, “We’ll know when we are really having a Green Revolution and that is when the word “green’ disappears. There won’t be a ‘green’ building. You simply won’t be able to build something that doesn’t adhere to the highest energy and resource efficient standards. There won’t be a ‘green’ car, only a car which is built to highest mileage and environmental standards. “

Friedman lays more faith on engineers and entrepreneurs than on regulators or “192 countries trying to agree on reduction in emissions” as in the COP meetings, for change to happen. Price matters in the Green Revolution, and a durable, long term price system for carbon is critical. He also favours subsidy support to renewables especially in the intial take-off stages, as well as a carbon and gasoline tax to reduce the price advantage on fossil fuels.

For systemic change to happen that supports ‘an ecosystem of innovation’, one requires firm leadership and Friedman wishes America could be China for a day, just to be able to impose all the rules and regulations to support the green revolution, and let the system take over.

My thoughts on Friedman’s call for a green revolution:

-          It looks increasingly like it may not be America’s call to take leadership on Climate Change. China for good or bad, does have the political advantange of firm leadership (or dictatorship) to make swift decisions on green technology.  Friedman himself admitted during the Q & A that necessity is the “mother of innovation” and that China is moving faster toward clean technology, as it discovers the downsides of  environmental pollution.

(According to BNEF, new global investment in clean energy reached $243 billion in 2010, up from $186.5 billion in 2009. Last year’s investment figures double those from 2006. The main factors in this growth were the massive Chinese market, the expansion of offshore wind, hot European solar markets and global R&D.

Investment in China was up 30% to $51.1bn in 2010, by far the largest figure for any country. In 2009 Asia and Oceania overtook the Americas, and in 2010 it narrowed the gap further on Europe, Middle East and Africa as the leading region of the world for clean energy investment. Facts from Renewable Energy World )

-          My question to Friedman during the Q & A was that though removal of fossil fuel subsidies is one key step in giving the right price signals to the market, political leaders do get ‘wobbly knees’ when actually taking action on this front. I wanted to know if there are case studies of countries who have been successful with this.  Look at India where the price of onions is enough to give politicians the jitters.  (I also had at the back of my mind the reversal of Bolivian President Eva Morales’ decision to raise fuel prices over the new year.  India too had deregulated petrol prices in June 2010 but not diesel prices because it was too sensitive an issue. )

Friedman didn’t answer my question directly, but he did give an interesting perspective about what fossil fuel subsidies really mean to an economy. If you don’t tax fuel in your country, you are simply handing that money over to the oil cartel, instead of using it for education, health and green tech within your own economy. Even though the per unit price of oil goes up, the total bill goes down leading to a more efficient system. Yes, it’s a difficult decision, but it has to be done, and all it may take is one gutsy polician to bring about that change.

-          Friedman doesn’t really mention a role for civic society, in fact he dismisses all the small, green actions that individuals take, without a larger systemic, macroeconomic change happening.  My take on this is yes, we absolutely need systemic change, but more often than not, it happens when millions of individuals start demanding that change, and no matter what level it is – at an individual level (as a consumer, employee or neighbour), at a community level, at a national or international level – it is at the end of the day,  individuals and groups of ‘thoughtful citizens’ who will change the world.

We can’t hang around and wait much longer for that change to happen, as there is no “later” in Friedman’s sober conclusion. I share his cautious optimism in these words, “We have exactly enough time – starting now.”

About the writer:

Bhavani Prakash is the Founder of Eco WALK the Talk .com. She is passionate about the role of individuals and communities in bringing about the much needed change we need to see in the world.  She was an economist in her previous avatar, and is now an environmental and social justice activist using social media as well as offline community participation in her advocacy of a greener, fairer and happier planet. She writes and conducts talks and workshops on sustainability and can be contacted at bhavani[at]ecowalkthetalk.com. Follow Eco WALK the Talk on Facebook, Twitter, Linked IN and YouTube

Further links you may be interested in: