Global Environment--Global Warming

Global warming is bound to be the thorniest environmental problem facing the world in this century. The worldwide weather reports for the last few months of 2005 and the first month of this year have already detected an alarming trace of weather abnormality. For instance, the frequency of rainfall in early this month was exceptionally high in Singapore. The most severe flooding in the recent 50 years also occurred in India. Snowfall in Japan was unusually heavy as well. There were reports on houses being overwhelmed by the huge amount of snow accumulated on the roofs. If this evidence were not enough, then the series of hurricanes and tornados that struck the USA last year would definitely convince you that we are under great threat.

However, much to our disappointment, the world’s greatest carbon dioxide dischargers—the USA, China, Australia and India—are not committed to reducing the emission of this heat trapping gas. Though global meetings are held year by year and various promises have been made, participants, for most of the time, seem to adopt a nonchalant attitude towards these opportunities created to dissolve tough environmental problems. Apparently, they take meetings for granted. The cooperation between countries is also not desirably close. According to the Straits Times article, “Six nations to meet over global warming”, Australia and Canberra have refused to sign the 1997 Kyoto treaty, saying the caps on greenhouse gas emissions it demands would damage their economies. Obviously, national interest is dominating in their minds. On the other hand, there are some flaws in this Kyoto treaty, which states that developing nations like China and India are exempted from complying with this cap on greenhouse gas emission. China and India are the two major carbon dioxide gas producers, discharging 20 per cent of global pollutants. Even if developed countries are willing to follow the terms of the treaty, this problem may not be alleviated since the rate of production by developing countries may even outweigh the rate of reduction by developed nations. Every country should shoulder some responsibilities in the combat against global warming. The richer nations should not take the full responsibility, or it may lead to an over dependence of poorer nations on richer countries.

On 10th January 2006, a conference, engaging business leaders and government ministers from six countries, will be held in Sydney to derive ways to tackle global warming problem. However, critics and environmentalists doubt the effectiveness of the conference since such meetings have never yielded much promising results. In addition, Conferences of this type are usually not fully respected, as countries involved tend to exploit this opportunity to forge economic ties with each other instead, rather than negotiate on the genuine topic. National interests again overpower global interests.

Global warming is a problem that has to be solved immediately as we have witnessed too many natural disasters related to it during recent years. According to a BBC news article, global warming will alter the weather pattern across the globe. Warmer regions may experience heavier rainfall, resulting in frequent flooding and cold region may have to face less rainfall, which may lead to much more severe drought and hence famine problem. The consequences of these changes are far reaching. By the summer of 2050 temperatures will have risen by around 2 degrees or more in western countries like England. Global warming will also cause sea level to rise as the ice caps in the South and North Poles melt. Low-lying lands such Singapore may eventually be submerged, displacing thousands of millions of people from home. Obviously, the list of consequences due to global warming is not exhaustive.

I believe that countries have to cooperate more closely. They have to consolidate and share their technologies, experience and resources to lower the greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the threat of global climate change.


Relevant article: 1) “ six nations to meet over global warming”
2) Global warming—what can we do” by Helen Willetts
3) Global warming—an overview by Helen Willetts.

1) The writer describes what h thinks are the ways Asian societies and Western societies related to authority/leaders. Do you think Singapore’s society resembles Asian societies or Western societies when it comes to relating to authority /leaders? Justify your answer.

Based on the writer’s description, Singapore’s society behaves more like an Asian society than a Western one when it comes to relating to leader. To a small degree, its society indeed resembles a Western society. Its governing leaders are open-minded and willing to listen to the public. The society upholds meritocracy rather than connections with powerful leaders. However, Chinese race constitutes the majority of Singapore’s population and they tend to pretend not to see or know what their leaders have done either to secure their own interest or due to the overwhelming faith that they have in their leaders. The recent NKF scandal is a good example. T.T. Durai, the former Chief Executive Officer of the charity organization, NKF, was denounced nationwide for misusing money donated by the public. However, none of his former colleagues and subordinates, who had already knew his misdoings, attempted to expose him, allowing his mistakes to continued into the end of 2005, when he was forced to resign after the what he had done had been brought to light. In his colleagues’ eyes, he is an encouraging leader and to the sick, he is their great benefactor, considering the increasing sum of money collected when his was in power. This had made some workers and the sick “more willing to forgive shortcomings, even serious ones, in him, to satisfy their deep longing for faith in him”. They still trusted him and believe the NKF would thrive further under him. This unwillingness to report his wrongdoings has also partly to do with “the tendency in Asia to never contradict the boss, and to think that everything he says is right”, as some employers at the lower rank said that they dare not challenge his authority and had no idea whether what he had done was wrong. Moreover, the Chief Executive Committee members “left all decisions to” him, they “expected him as the office-holder to show leadership” so that they “shoulder less responsibility, and relax”. The NKF scandal serves just as a miniature of what is going in many organizations and in the society. Hence, I believe that Singapore’s society resembles Asian societies more.

2) Harvard professor Ronald Heifetz suggests that leadership should be separated from official rank and appointment. He proposes that leadership be thought of as an activity that authority figures exercise only some of the time. Do you agree with this proposal? Justify your answer.

I agree with his proposal that leadership be thought of as an activity that authority figures exercise only some of the time. Leaders are after all human beings, who are bound to make mistakes sometimes. They should not be set up as idols for worship and the public should not hold too many expectations of leaders they chose. If not, it would be the public’s that is going to be disappointed when their ideal ones do not behave like ones. Leaders elected are meant to guide, to lead people to solve problems, not to be bombarded with disturbing questions relating to his/her personal characteristics or social behaviors. If the public elected someone as the leader and only to deprive he/she of his/her post later on after finding his/her characteristics not being able to live up to their expectations without considering his/her actual abilities to serve as a leader, the purpose of having leaders and authorities would be defeated,
Also, it would be quite unfair to leaders. In the article, the NMP Cynthia Han was bereft of her parliament post due to her kissing her old boyfriend. It was unjustified as she is just a normal human being like us, who needs be cared for and loved. All in all, she has already been widowed.

I think Leadership is about doing right things and being able to inspire people to solve problems at hand, but not being compliant to the public’s requirements and expectations, which may be unrealistic and unreasonable sometimes. People should also be more proactive in becoming leaders to make changes themselves instead of relying solely on leaders elected. If leadership is regarded as an activity, then, everyone can exercise and be a leader. Like what the author says, NMP Cynthia Han can still contribute as she has the experience of being a leader and she has the qualities. Similarly, in the case of T.T. Durai, I think he could still contribute as he has displayed great ability in leading big cooperations.

China has long been regarded as one of the world’s biggest economy driver. Its significant role in world affairs has been manifested in Japan’s unsuccessful bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council due to China’s strong protest. Moreover, it is now the world’s fourth largest economy, bigger than Italy, France and Britain. However, the price for these achievements seems to be too high for many Chinese to accept. Corruptions, environmental degradation and home eviction often lead to protests. According to a Newsweek article, “Line of Defense”, 74000 major protests took place last year up from 58000 in 2003. I think this clearly shows that the central government has not paid sufficient attention to the poorer sector of the population and it has to tighten its control over provinces that are far away from Beijing, like provinces in southern part of China.

Whenever land is required for a project, be it state-run, be it private, the authorities would coerce farmers to give up the land that they survive on. Compensations given are usually disproportionate. The exploitation of the poor can also be clearly reflected in China’s mining industry. Due to high energy demand, workers are often forced to work overtime for unreasonably low wage. According to an article in Lian He Zao Bao, transporting a big wicker basket of raw coal on shoulder from the mine to the refinery, which is about one kilometers away, will only earn the miner one yuan, equivalent to twenty cents in Singapore currency. That is not all; the working environment in China’s coal mining industry has been graded as the most dangerous one on the Earth, with most numbers of casualties per year. In the light of all these unfair treatments, we can understand why there are so many protests occurring in different parts of China. What protestors want is justice and fair treatment, but what they face in the end is often harsh repression. I think the central government should divert some of their attention to farmers and workers from rural areas, ensuring that the national wealth is well distributed. Also, it has to launch harsher policies in order to effectively and efficiently bring down corruption. All these, I believe, would help to reduce protests and hence the level of social unrest in the nation. In addition, the central government has to tighten its control over its provinces. Some governors take situations into their own hands by hiring local thugs to deal with protestors, leading to heavy deaths and casualties. The central government is now busy making planning for greater economic development; thus, it may pay little attention to riots that are isolated and of small scale. It has given power to local governors to handle the situations, however, many are doing so in a violent manner. The notorious Taishi scandal in Guangdong province is an example. As a result, I believe that the government should divert some of its energy to developing a desirable common policy to deal with protests. It should not allow local governors to harshly crack down on protestors, as reverse effect may be yielded. China is still dominantly agricultural. Farmers still constitute the majority of the population. If they were to revolt, what China has achieved would be destroyed and all its effort to become the world’s biggest economy would be in vain. Taking Indonesia for instance, the reason why it makes little achievement in its economic performance is because there are too many demonstrations happening every year, which severely hinder its development plans despite the fact that it has a reservoir of raw materials. Currently, the protests in China may be isolated and of small scale, but there is high possibility that coordinated demonstrations may occur if the government refuses to pay attention to the problems. The effective example would be the coordinated demonstrations against Japan’s publication of its new history textbook in 2005.