World Leaders Must Wake Up

World leaders must wake up
Many do not realise danger their populations face from global warming: MM Lee

Jasmine Yin
jasmine@mediacorp.com.sg


Singapore News // Friday, August 31, 2007


World leaders must wake up
Many do not realise danger their populations face from global warming: MM Lee

Jasmine Yin
jasmine@mediacorp.com.sg


THE dangers of rising sea levels may not have sunk in yet for some world leaders but Singapore, for one, is taking no chances with global warming.


Referring to ongoing talks with the Dutch to build dikes, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said, in an interview with the International Herald Tribune conducted last week and published yesterday: "We are too vulnerable. If the water goes up by one metre, we can have dikes and save ourselves.

"But if the water goes up by three, four, five metres, what will happen to us? Half of Singapore will disappear.

The valuable half — the seafronts!"

There are several projects running into billions of dollars that are currently underway all around the island-state's waterfront, such as the new Marina Bay downtown and the upscale Sentosa Cove residences.

Illustrating the possible mammoth upheaval to people's lives in the event of glaciers in the Himalayas melting and rivers like the Mekong drying up, Mr Lee said: "What will happen to the hundreds of millions? Where do they go? Where can they go? This will be a very serious problem.

"It scares me because many world leaders have not woken up to the peril that their populations are in."

This issue has been put on the backburner because "it's not an election issue", he said. "You know maybe (in) 50 years, a hundred years, most of us would be dead. Leave it to the next president."

But instead of cutting down reliance on energy, Mr Lee argued that implementing green technologies was a more realistic approach to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions.

The pro-active stance that Singapore is taking towards the predicted rise in sea levels has much to do with its survival instinct as a young and small immigrant nation.

From attracting multi-national corporation investments to the push for English as the working language, Singapore has to "go in whatever direction world conditions dictate if we are to survive and to be part of this modern world".

He cautioned: "If we are not connected to this modern world, we are dead. We'll go back to the fishing village we once were."

Mr Lee also touched on the rise of China and India, reiterating that these two emerging powerhouses present more of an opportunity than a challenge for the region.

He added: "I believe it will be conflict-free between big powers because it's too costly for them. But between big powers against small powers, the squeezing of small powers, that will go on. Between small powers themselves, the small will squeeze the smaller.

"But I do not believe hostilities are worth anybody's while."
Many do not realise danger their populations face from global warming: MM Lee