Something about our Natural Heritage

Natural heritage can be seen as a country's natural capital. It is a natural asset and something that a country inherits naturally.

Why is there an emphasis being placed on nature or the natural heritage? Because we human often forget the simple fact in life that 'nature is a self supporting organism/system'. We are part of nature yet our consumption has changed us drastically to have an 'external influence' on it. River systems, forests, coastal regions have always self regulated their ecosystems naturally by themselves and the organism within it. Our irresponsible actions have changed this 'natural law' within the short span of years humans have come into existence as the top organism within the global ecosystem.

Picture this simple example: A natural forest has its own regulators and filter system while a managed landscape has to be constantly nourished using fertilizers, water and pesticides. We, humans, have constantly disrupted the unique balance of nature. To begin with, the balance is fragile and dedicate on its own as the balance is a complex one as it includes the ecological functions and relationships within hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individual organisms. But we have single handedly affect this balance and now the impacts of it are fast coming into light. This include
(1) our ever increasing list of endangered and extinct organisms,
(2) the 'islandazation' of natural habitats where an entire system is broken down due to resource extraction and relationships between organisms cease to exist,
(3) the drop in biodiversity,
(4) drop in food and resource production capabilities of our natural areas,
(5) reduced effectiveness of our environment as biotic filters that regulate water, pollution and air quality and
(6) increasing wide spread growth of diseases such has H5N1 virus and dengue fever.

Some of you may still find it non-amusing and continue to deny our ecological footprints. But let me share with you a thought that scares me. Isn't it our fault that our possible doom and the end to our existence is ultimately our cause? Well... sadly it is... because before humans became the number 1 top dog, such signs (points 1 to 6 above) have never come into existence. Furthermore, before humans came to the driver's seat, there was no such problems like pollution, rubbish/externalities or even over resource extraction. All the above are social constructions of our society. Everything was natural and existed in harmony; all that went around eventually returns to mother earth itself. Because our human race has cause so much harm to the environment ... we can be actually consider parasites in nature. Our society is going off hand. That is a fact.

So what can we do? I guess there have been many solutions to the problem and it is too difficult to outline and evaluate all of them. But I guess I could start by outlining what the Singapore society has attempted to do and achieve.

Without a doubt our Singapore society is an unsustainable one. Why? That is because we cannot sustain our population nor its consumption habits solely on the natural heritage we inherit through our land. In order to do survive, our society has become one that is highly dependent on imports. This has blinded our vision and caused our impacts on mother earth to be rendered invisible. What damage our ecological footprint has cause is not seen locally as it has been imprinted on a foreign land and its people. What is the result? Our ecological footprint has shot up to 7.2 hectares per person. That might be little to some... but when you consider the global average to be estimated at 1.7 hectares and that our Singapore land offers us only 0.1 hectares per citizen... that is a scary thought because... we are consuming 4 times the amount of the average individual and 72 times what we are entitled to consume in the original place... that fact shocks you, doesn't it.

So what should we do? In our developmental state, the mentally propagated everywhere is: 'we have to work harder, so our economic power remains strong for us to purchase what we need'. That statement is true because that is how our small nation has survived over the years since its formation. However doesn't it continue to blind our vision of our own ecological footprint?

Hence, we should not depend solely on what we are best at, gaining capital but at the same time, reduce our ecological footprint. After all, we were once a nation with citizens that had a small ecological footprint. Our forefathers survived without air-con, cars, wines and a whole lot of other luxury goods.

Then again, I would not think a too drastic change in our lifestyle would help much. What we can do is try reduce and not eradicate our ecological footprint while increase our environmental sustainability. So how do we do it? We can start by looking back at how we can conserve natural heritage and its resources have that supported us and then come up with indigenous solutions to reduce our ecological footprints. I guess the PAP government and private companies such as SIA have set a great example for us to adopt.

The government has constantly been helping to rejuvenate the idea of 'green' living with programs such as green plan 2012 and 'Community in Bloom' which aims to increase the interaction of humans and nature. Nparks has also done a good job to balance natural habitats, development and tourism in an attempt that encourage sustainable human and nature interactions. The government has taken the first step to conserve more green areas and habitats as well as increased the access to nature for the people by introducing broad walks, tree top walks and developed more spaces, such as Chek Jawa for the public. We need to put the focus of conserving nature, however small it is, back into our everyday lives. That is obvious because any pocket of nature that is affected by development and faces no protection is ultimately a sitting duck waiting to be eliminated.

In order to combat higher electrical consumption, SIA has planted more plants to reduce the temperature within their complexes. They have even developed architectural elements that help increase natural lighting. Both methods help reduce electricity needed to cool and light up their complexes. Many private and government bodies have also encourage good work place practices such the using of the stairs over the lifts for shorter trips, car pool for lunch, reduce waste paper and even gardening within their own compounds.

Our natural heritage and environment is one that is irreplaceable. Even though extinction is a part of how the natural system strengthens its immunities, we cannot simply acknowledge or allow organisms or habitats to be labeled extinct. Because in the long term, there will come a point where all keystones species, natural habitats and systems are degraded by us to the extent the next specimen to be labeled extinct would be the homosapien. We eventually will reach that stage but the point is ... How fast? That I believe depends on human nature to decide. One day we continue to see ourselves as the top dog and separated from nature, it means we are one day closer to our doom. We should always see and acknowledge that humans and nature are one. We, homosapiens, have a role to play in nature. One role to be in the system and not out of the system.

P.S. Bulk of the info on this post comes from Chou, Tan and Yeo (2006) "The Natural Heritage of Singapore". This post is dedicated to the module SSS1207, which I have waited 2 years to study and utterly enjoyed the process and lessons learnt.