Climate Change and its issues.

After listening to last Friday’s insightful lecture, it has increased my awareness and understanding of the issues related with climate change (global warming) and its implications. The point that caught my attention was countries with higher GNP per capita have higher carbon footprints, as they should have the technology and money to combat global warming. Over the years the effect of global warming has become imminent and hence the need to cut down on carbon footprints is inevitable. There has been a temperature rise, which in turn cause an increase in water level, thus endangering low-lying countries. For example Tuvalu , which is among the world's lowest-lying countries, they are suffering from two kinds of damage. One is from higher sea water levels that erode their coastlines. The other is from sea water penetrating the atolls, contaminating their wells and farmland and sometime even rising up through the floors of their homes. Hence we cannot leave this problem unchecked.

Prof. Sovacool shared with us some useful means to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases. There are a few methods which could be used or have been done by the Singapore government which I would like to highlight. In terms of transport the Singapore have done a good job in keeping the number of vehicles on the roads in check. For example the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), instituted by the government of Singapore, is a program designed to limit car ownership, and hence, the number of vehicles on the country's roads. This system, in effect, requires residents of Singapore to bid for the right to buy a motor vehicle, with the number of certificates deliberately restricted. Furthermore she has incorporated good land use regulations and infrastructure planning. However, I feel that Singaporeans tend to have high spending power, in which 95% of goods most people purchase are no longer in use after the 1st year. In my opinion, perhaps the government can educate citizens on the impact they play in fighting global warming and how they can change their daily actions to mitigate the situation, or if need be impose a limitation to the amount of goods they can buy.

I hope people realize the situation and do their part in fighting global warming and our future generations live to see a brighter future.