Not A Sunny Day in Singapore
By: Meenakshi Kothari
Just a normal Saturday morning, drawing the curtains we see an unusually hazy sky. The weather was not hot, the sun wasn’t gazing. We all felt like we weren’t in Singapore. Sounds like a perfect day to visit the beach? Or go for a picnic to celebrate this temporary cool weather? Well, turns out the favoring situation right in front of us might not have a very good backstory and can even turn out to be hazardous as it did in this case. What looks positive might be ugly when you open your eyes and look at the world around us.
As I cross the street to buy food, I am surrounded by people with masks everywhere. Feeling like an outcast, I noticed that there was something that affected the air of Singapore and the people weren’t enjoying their ‘not hot’ Saturday. I was trying to figure out the cause of this different reaction to a less sunny day (which is generally seen as a blessing).
There was something weird about the air but being optimistic I thought it’s just better weather. I said to myself, “maybe there’s a disease I don’t know about.” And while I was hoping it was all a joke, it turned out to be reality. We realized that this haze and unusually pleasant weather didn’t occur naturally. It was because of the raging forest fires in Indonesia. The fires started on 11th September and for three continuous days it was scorching, making Kuala Lumpur and Singapore the top countries with most polluted air. Little did we know that the effect of fires could be so impactful till we experienced it.
A country suffers from fire, while choking its neighboring countries and who knows one day this may choke all of us. More than 930,000 hectares of land have been burnt according to CNN Indonesia. Thousands of people are being evacuated, and the country is in total chaos. We know the reason for this fire is due to deforestation (slash and burn), the exact same reason for the Amazon fire. Just as Indonesia was relocating its capital because Jakarta is sinking, it woke up to burning forests. If this doesn’t give you a picture of a doomed future, then what will?
One country is suffering but it isn’t really just one country. In the past three years, it’s the first time that the air quality has degraded and contaminated to such a great extent that the PSI exceeds 100. The land of Indonesia is carbon rich, and increases its contribution to the climate change to a great extent due to these fires. There was a similar incident in 2015, where Singapore saw the worst haze, where PSI reached 300. The question is how many more incidents need to occur and how much more will we exploit the nature before taking a substantial and effective step in reducing these catastrophes? How long will we all sleep peacefully, while our neighboring countries burn?
The haze today has made all of us wonder about our surroundings but we shouldn’t wait for these disasters to destroy our planet in order for us to start taking action. Its 2019, and we’ve reached the point where it’s IMPLIED that it’s time we stop exploiting our own home. You might sleep today waking up to a sunny bright sky, but the day is not far when you will wake up to a hazy sky and experience what it feels like to bare the consequences of your actions or ‘no actions’.
References:
Najeer Yusof (photographer). (2019, 19 September). The NEA has said there are "sufficient" stockpiles of N95 masks in Singapore [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/16-million-n95-masks-available-national-stockpile-haze-covers-singapore
Dhany Osman (photographer). (2019, 19 September). F1 weekend: Haze levels will range between moderate and unhealthy [digital image]. Retrieved from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/f-1-weekend-haze-levels-will-range-between-moderate-and-unhealthy-061106730.html