Hi everyone!

As we are reaching the end of October, here is my penultimate quote of the day.

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill.

This will be a post which I will share my thoughts on whether Singapore will continue to strike a balance between Nature and our existence.

While I do feel that the Singapore government and its people have done their best trying to compensate what we have brought Nature to its existence on our land, we can’t deny the fact that we have left a huge mark on our country where we have exploited Nature to live with not just our basic needs, but with other purposes that satisfy on top of our basic needs (e.g. entertainment).

As much as we are exploiting Nature, not all hope is lost. Accompanied by the point that we still have nature reserves to protect the last of our natural gems, we are welcoming back the natural species that were once thought extinct. For instance, it was mentioned from Dr Sonja  (the director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore) during the talk, Biodiversity: An essential service, that the otters in Singapore are a vital indicator to environmental health in public waterways and water bodies. Currently, there are otter families where they keep expanding and has been thriving in different sections of Singapore (Turrell C., 2020)^[1].

The key to bringing in more awareness of this precious wildlife would be to instil the knowledge into our future generations. I feel that is because they will be the ones to steer the balance between Nature and humanity. One example would be the guided walks around Singapore. Back in 2018, the Jurong Spring community club near my home has been organising nature walks to bring residents to the different habitats of Singapore. While I was one of the members who made this programme possible, I have also learnt from my nature guide that there is so much biodiversity out there in Singapore that many Singaporeans are unaware of. It is as simple as bringing them out to see the natural world, rather than being cooped up in our social life.

We were once connected with Nature, where we humans thrive on depending on Nature to meet our own needs. It will be a pity if our children don’t get to see this beautiful world in a tiny country. Just like the quote I have shared from the beginning, if we are not able to make a great change in our nation’s biodiversity, at least we are playing a part in small ways to make awareness that Nature is here to stay with us for future generations to come.

In the next mind,

Wee Meng