Hey you! It’s my penultimate post for this blog, and I hope that so far, my posts have enriched your understanding of how one’s religion could possibly influence one’s environmental stance. So far, we’ve covered the four main religions in Singapore and what they say and do about the environment. In this post and next, we’re going to look at what they don’t do, and see look at ideas on how to plug those gaps.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, a great disconnect between a religion’s teachings and individual, or even organisational, environmental action is apparent in Singapore. There have been positive examples, such as the Tzu Chi Foundation’s work I mentioned in my post on Buddhism, but there is still much to be done!

According to an essay written by another BES student Benjamin Ho, an issue that prevents radical environmental action by religious groups not the lack of coordination within their own religions, but rather, a lack of coordinated action between different religions. Interfaith dialogue and cooperation are not new – in fact, the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) in Singapore has been established since 1949! However, while there have been events that have seen multiple religious leaders coming together to talk about the environment, it seems that it simply stops at… talk.

But what is it that is stopping Singapore’s religious organisations from translating their talk into action? International organisations such as the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI) have found success in this aspect. The IRI seeks to use the political clout and moral authority of religions to protect the rainforests of the world and the indigenous people that live in them, and do so by lobbying governments to stop deforestation and protect the rights of indigenous people. Highly ambitious, it marks the first time the interfaith community is taking such a strong political stand against deforestation. Greenfaith, an inter-religious environmental NGO, led faith communities in attending a climate march in September 2014 during a UN climate summit, and 15,000 people of faith turned up for the march!

Perhaps it is because of the spiritual-secular divide enforced by the state that I mentioned in my previous post that prevents religious organisations from criticising the government’s inadequate environmental action. Or maybe it is because of how environmental injustice is not as pronounced in Singapore – after all, most religious organisations would devote a greater amount of resources to meeting the more immediate needs of their community, and as such, religious organisations don’t place the alleviation of suffering through fighting the climate crisis as a priority.

If that is so, it would be, sadly, short-sighted. The environmental crisis affects everything that the four religions care about – the marginalised, needy, and helpless – and taking steps to fight the environmental crisis would be to tackle the problem at one of its roots, rather than simply firefighting the problems it creates.

However, there is hope in the infrastructure that is already in place for environmental action by religious groups: organisations that oversee whole religions, the IRO, and large amounts of resources.

All we have to do now to close this gap is to take that leap of faith towards action. 

-Dennis

(Cover image by Iyan Sofyan)