Hello!!

Hi everyone! Iโ€™m Ernest, a Year 1 Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) student at NUS.

Before the flurry of posts begins each week, this first post here will be to introduce to you the writer of this blog (thatโ€™s me!), and why I am going to write what I am going to write.

That’s me at Khao Yai, Thailand, staring at a waterfall. Apparently, I lost track of time and my friends said I stood there for at least 5 minutes :O

I love nature and the environment. Being out in nature calms my nerves and makes my day. The peace and serenity within it is something you can never find anywhere else. As a Biology student, I am also interested in ecology. I like to study how different species interact with each other and with their habitats, and also how we, as humans, interact with our environment and other species around us. Sadly, more often than not, our actions are detrimental to the environment. However, I want to see our environment being preserved and passed down to our future generations. I want them to have the opportunity to enjoy what I enjoyed, a peaceful, serene sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of urban life.

That led to me being passionate about environmentalism and reading up on relevant policies. But through years of keeping up with the news, travelling and observing how other countries develop sustainably, it shocks me to see how Singapore, such a developed and advanced society, is lagging so far behind in its quest for sustainability.

Thankfully in Singapore, many ground-up communities and organisations are pushing for greater awareness and action to protect the environment. However, in my opinion, their power is limited. Although citizens know what we should do to play our part, without the proper infrastructure, it will be difficult for us to convert talk into action as well as see and understand how our actions will benefit the environment.

As such, I feel that the institution with the true power to change things is our government and they do it through their policies and initiatives. Because of this, my goal in future (hopefully ๐Ÿ™‚ ) is to be part of that change, to be in a position to influence policies so that we can develop better solutions to protect what we have left of our environment.

The road ahead to sustainability might be long, but it will surely be beautiful. This is a photo I took at Khao Yai, Thailand.

 

In this blog, using the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and some Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) as a backbone, I will be sharing and discussing what policies and plans the Government has in store, and what more we, as a country and as consumers, can do to develop sustainably. Do stay tuned!

See you next week ๐Ÿ˜€

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