THE GREAT GREEN DISCONNECT
by Calvin Low

People are, today, more conscious than ever of the need to collectively shoulder the burden to save the environment, why then this disconnect between conviction and action? Calvin Low investigates the obstacles confronting people's will to go green in their daily decisions.

It has risen steadily on the scale of political correctness. It casts a looming and lengthening shadow on the world media. It has even penetrated plush boardrooms of hard-nosed commerce, as centrepieces of savvy business plans that capitalise on its mantle of corporate and social responsibility.

Given the pervasiveness of the green message on radio and TV, in newspapers, and the Internet these days, it is conceivable that people who are within the reach of these media channels have imbibed the message to a good extent. Happy tidings then, for the global green movement, at this macro level.

Down in the dirt, however, the micro view of day to day existence assumes a different hue. Ask the average Joe how green he really is in the private sphere of his daily choices and habits, and it would appear, the battle for hearts, if not the minds, of the man-on-the-street still has some considerable way to go.

Though well aware of their actions' cumulative impact on climate change, people still think nothing of doing 'un-green' things like leaving their computers on for days on end to download bootleg copies of the latest TV drama serial off the Net. They recoil at the idea of bussing or biking to the neighbourhood supermarket. Around Southeast Asia, some must still wing it to popular shopping hotspots such as Hongkong or Bangkok for their weekend indulgence.

Evidently, the green message is being heard. But somehow, that has not translated to out-and-out action—a point made by our small survey of 70 people of different ages and walks of life from 10 countries. According to the 48 people who responded—mainly from Singapore, but including respondents from Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the US—it appears that the retarding tenterhooks of personal apathy, media fatigue, government lip-service and commercial opportunism have already sunk deep, threatening to bog and belay what precious headway the green movement may have forged.

The distinct exceptions are South Korea, Japan, and to a lesser extent, Taiwan, where people actually follow through on their green convictions, albeit within the framework of carrot-and-stick regimes enforced by national governments and municipal authorities.

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Calvin Low is trained in architecture and journalism. He joined the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 1985 to help establish urban conservation in Singapore. In 1995, he pursued journalism, spending nine years at Singapore Press Holdings, eventually serving as News Editor for Streats, Singapore's first freesheet. As URA's Head (Urban Studies) between 2004 and 2006, he conceptualised, authored and edited such books and exhibitions as 20 under 45 and Shaping Singapore. An architectural columnist for The Straits Times (Urbanscrawl), his latest book is 2007's 10 Stories — Queenstown Through The Years.

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