| Pinning Down Doomsday |
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-- A Reality Check Last week, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) moved the minute hand of its Doomsday Clock from 7 to 5 minutes closer to Midnight (Doomsday) in a stark warning that the world is nudging closer to nuclear apocalypse and environmental disaster. I felt it was a clever piece of dramatization; this Clock 'tick-o-tocking' into our fertile imagination. But I was wrong. The news did not make January 19 headline; not even as front page material for our national daily, The Straits Times (ST). At page 24 WORLD, the report sat tightly in a corner with a photo of a glum-faced Mr Thomas Pickering lowering his eyelids towards me (the reader) and protesting, "Hey Joe, is this how your part of the world treat news of such gravity, huh?" |
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It was my imagination playing up, of course, but that was exactly my sentiment. For all its intent and purpose, BAS's dire warning is fully-loaded, cocked, and not to play Russian Roulette with. ST's choice for Associated Press reporting, however, did just that: killing the original BAS statement with reckless brevity. [See instead BAS original statement ] Since then, a week has gone by. And you know what? The dismal response to the Doomsday Clock continued. Not a single discussion arose from anyone in our local green network. Can you imagine that? It was as if the '5 minutes to Doomsday' warning fell on our ears like a pin drop. You might retort: "What's the big deal? It's just symbolic after all." Well, it all depends on how you connect it with reality and raising the stake at the same time. Putting the proposition to you now, I ask: "You are not concerned with being 5 minutes to Doomsday, right? What if I were to tell you that you are 5 months to the day when a * green lung (a coastal forest with a size no smaller that the rain forest in the Singapore Botanic Gardens) would be destroyed in Sentosa to make way for the Intergrated Resort (IR). Are you still not concerned?" Don't answer yet, though. Allow me first to lead you into an imaginary empty room where you will join 40 other persons standing almost shoulder to shoulder. And making my way to the front I delivered a simple statement: "Pins can hurt badly." The four words sounded almost too silly for you to agree. But yes, pins can hurt badly. Your intelligence tells you so. Doomsday also hurts. Intelligence tells you that too. Now, imagine you are being told to leave the room for a 15-minute teabreak and after which you are to return promptly for a closing statement. You happily obliged and no sooner had you your fill, you are back again. However, this time, you are greeted at the door by a sign instructing everyone to remove their shoes before entering the room. So there you are, back in the room once again -- shoeless and standing shoulder to shoulder with the others again. It would appear to you that I entered the room gingerly. And having thank the audience for their presence, I begin my closing statement: "Pins really hurt, and there are quite a few on the floor around you." Can you imagine the commotion around you? How everyone is looking intently around their feet and afraid to move an inch around the room? Yes, pins really hurt. It is not intelligence telling you so this time round. It's fear and concern -- from real and present danger -- that make you think so. Can you see how relevent 5 minutes to Doomsday is now? As I have mentioned earlier, it really depends on how you connect it with reality and raising the stake at the same time. You do not require the skill of a great dramatist like Lu Xun to make the connecting bridge between symbolism and significance. Unless one is not atune with one's immediate reality, I cannot see why it is not within one's grasp. Surely this is not the case with people working for Nature and the environment here in Singapore? |
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Epilogue
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Let us just imagine we are back in the imaginary room again. The pins are strewn all over the cement floor. What would you do then? Would you leave immediately, leaving the problem behind? Or would you stay to pick them up? Can you see the underpinning message?
One voice from the BAS Statement scored a most salient point in this regard:
Lawrence M. Krauss, professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University, and a BAS sponsor, said: "In these dangerous times, scientists have a responsibility to speak truth to power especially if it might provoke actions to reduce threats from the preventable technological dangers currently facing humanity. To do anything else would be negligent."
Speaking truth? What is Truth? Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali sang it most beautifully.
It is sad indeed that in Singapore there are scientists who are willing to sign themselves away into eternal silence with non-disclosure agreements. The spirit for scholarship and universal teacher-ship and kinship is lost. All they do is talk on the grand scale. Backyard ownership is far removed from their mind; not to mention, the ecological mind too.
Taking responsibility and ownership and action for the reality of threats facing nature conservation and environmental protection is not an outward show. Rather, it is an outpouring of Truth which lives within all of us. Are we not genuine stakeholders of our own sweet home and community? Or has it got to do with education?
In about 5 months' time, a * green lung will be lost forever in Sentosa. And it is not just about the felling of trees for the tricks and treats of the IR. It is the ecology. We are part of it. Destroy it and it will become another significant, not symbolic, step closer to Doomsday for the human race.
* green lung -- the coastal forest is located between Siloso Road and the former Asian Village in Sentosa (See Map). It is where the iconic cycling trail transects. Some of the biggest Dragon Blood Trees, Dracaena maingayi, are found there. The area is slated for the development of the Integrated Resort (IR) which promises a psychedelic maze of gambling and entertainment.