In a Sunday morning (Aug 21) Facebook post, lawyer and opposition leader Lim Tean argued against a higher population in Singapore, writing, “To Ensure A Sustainable Future,We Must Stop Our Population Growth!”
This appears to be in relation to a previous post from the day before, wherein Mr Lim wrote that spending $100 billion to fight climate change is “pointless…when we are destroying green spaces to build more homes for a larger population.”
Both posts have been widely commented on.
In his National Day Rally speech in 2019, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that about $100 billion, or even more, may be needed to protect the country against rising sea levels that are a result of climate change.
Singapore is particularly vulnerable to this problem, but engineering solutions are available to protect the country’s coastline. These solutions, however, come at a cost, PM Lee added at the time.
Mr Lim, the secretary-general of the People’s Voice party, argued in his post that Singapore is “being turned into a sterile, soulless concrete monstrosity “ with “endless construction…everywhere.
“Let’s not fall for gimmicks and false narratives. Nice sounding catchphrases and fancy ecological names for new housing developments do nothing to Ensure sustainability.
I am sure our next generation have no wish to live in an overcrowded, joyless society, full of high rises, MRT stations and roads in the sky. They treasure our green spaces because they know that when you destroy nature, the future is not sustainable,” he added.
“How much will it cost, to protect ourselves against rising sea levels? My guess is probably S$100 billion over 100 years, quite possibly more,” the Prime Minister had said in 2019, adding, “If we only have 10 years to solve the problem, we won’t have have the time or resources to do it. But because this is a 50 to 100-year problem, we can implement a 50 to 100-year solution.”
Shortly after PM Lee’s speech, then Second Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong said that the S$100 billion funding for climate change initiatives would come from borrowings and reserves.
Netizens commenting on Mr Lim’s posts tended to agree with him.
/TISG
S$100 billion funding for climate change initiatives will come from borrowings, reserves