Podcast V – Singapur: why greenwashing is not an option
For one week we had the chance to live in the self-declared “city of gardens” where meticulous waste separation, clean drinking water from the tap and the hype around organic products make us feel just like home. There are countless projects trying to make the utopia of a sustainable city become reality – starting with recycling, smart water counters and even the use of incarcerated waste as a new living ground to expand Singapore’s territory. …almost to good to be true. We’re wondering if a city of endless consumption and luxury can actually have a positive impact on the climate and water crisis… Our podcast takes you on a revealing expedition about the state with the highest population density.
We’re awfully sorry, but this podcast is solely recorded in our mother-tongue German. But below you can read brief summary to get you ino the topic. Additionally we will upload a more ellaborate article about the resoults of our research about Singapore soon so stay tuned. :-)
The idea for our new podcast came to us after visiting the Sustainable Singapore Gallery. The exhibition outlines key strategies implemented in Singapore to archieve a sustainable living space for its 5.5 million inhabitants in terms of energy consumption, waste disposal and water management which is a critical issue for the water lacking island. Wandering through the modern museum, permeated with interactive movie clips, graphics and exhibits we were impressed with the futuristic solutions Singapore thought of facing e.g. major floodings. And after having enjoyed a heavenly view over the flourishing “Gardens by the Bay” we were sure of it: Singapore is serious about tackling climate change.
It makes sense since Singapore is a small island in the Indian Ocean thus being especially vunerable to the consequences of a rise in temperatures and the sea level as well as increasingly frequent natural disasters. In addition it’s been well known since decades that a sustainable urban development is crucial to stop global warming – that’s a difficult challenge connected with responsibility that lie in the hands of the cities of our future. Every aspect of urban life, architecture, mobility or science must be critically examined for more ressource efficiency and sustainability.
Singapore appears ambitious when it comes to paving the ways for individuals to live an eco-friendly life as well as demanding economy to go green. But is there even green capitalism?! Alerady in the 1970s the Limits to Growth were established by the Club of Rome stating that there cannot be endless growths on a planet of exhaustible ressources. No matter how many trees will be planted on the skyscrapers what we really need is a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions but disappointingly Singapore is one of the leading countries when it comes to the ecological footprint.
*the original podacast aired on the 25th of march on the local radio station radioflora – live there is also thematic music in our podcast, but since we don’t have the licences from GEMA (thus having to fear tremendous penalties if we upload the songs on our website) we can only help you out with this Spotify playlist of all the titles from this podcast in the correct order.
Of course we’re more than happy about feedback and your thoughts about the podcast or our articles, so don’t hesitate to write us a mail or contact us via Instagram. :-)
Natürlich freuen wir uns über Feedback und Gedanken zu unserer Folge, schreib uns doch Kritik per Mail oder Instagram. :-)