Tiny lungs, hefty price: Air pollution’s unequal burden on young children

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Infants breathe three times faster than adults and their bodies absorb more pollutants given their body size. During infancy, 80 per cent of tiny air sacs critical to oxygen-blood transfer are developed, making this a vulnerable period to air pollution as it can lead to harmful respiratory diseases such as asthma and pneumonia.

There is a fundamental issue of children’s rights when it comes to the environment.

The effects of climate change, intensification of air pollution as well as physical and psychological trauma linked to these events are disproportionately borne by children.

“The world has turned the corner on tobacco. Now it must do the same for the ‘new tobacco’ – the toxic air that billions breathe every day,

As young children bear the brunt of climate change, we owe it to them to do everything we can to make things better, sooner. Our most vulnerable are also our most valuable.

Qn: 'It is harder than ever to keep children save in today's world.' Comment. (RI 2023 J2 Mid-yr)

S’pore economy gets boost from shows by stars like Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Jacky Cheung

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Qn: Consider the view that celebrities are overpaid.

Is Taylor Swift underpaid?

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Interesting read, esp the role of tech in enabling celebrities to earn huge bucks while doing proportionately very little....

Call out greenwashing, crack down on it

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Note the opening with a BANG using an example of greenwashing....

budget carrier Ryanair to stop advertising itself as a “low CO2 emissions airline” as there wasn’t enough evidence to back the claim.

So, what exactly is greenwashing? Simply put, greenwashing is no different from false advertising. It creates the impression of a company that is environmentally friendly when that may not really be the case.

 A famous example is Volkswagen’s “dieselgate” scandal, which broke in 2015, where the auto giant was fined over €30 billion (S$44 billion) for installing software in cars to manipulate emission test results for years.

“Carbon neutral” is a chameleon phrase that changes its meaning depending on the context. Carbon neutrality might mean “We’ve eradicated our carbon emissions entirely”, or “We’ve neutralised our carbon dioxide emissions, but we’ve also increased our emissions of every greenhouse gas except carbon dioxide”. It could also mean “We’ve paid someone else to completely eliminate our carbon emissions”, a controversial practice known as “carbon offset” that has come under the microscope – for good reason.

Businesses worldwide are increasingly leaning on carbon offsets as the primary means to balance out their emissions. By purchasing equivalent amounts of carbon offsets from carbon-offset projects worldwide, these businesses can proudly declare themselves “carbon neutral”, or at least on the path towards it.

[colourful closing BANG!]: Green should be the colour of our conscience, not just a colour of our marketing.

For qns on advertising and greenwashing....

Nature versus economy is a false choice

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Nature nurtures while the economy feeds.

less than 0.5 per cent of the Republic’s original forests remain, and they are found mostly in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, which is home to a rich variety of plant and animal species that are unique to Singapore

Singapore is also a land-scarce country which needs to optimise the economic use of its natural resources to meet pressing needs such as transport.

conservation is not an esoteric pursuit by ecological radicals who do not care for the economics of everyday needs. Instead, the green community belongs to the material mainstream of Singapore. Likewise, environmentalists acknowledge that policymakers have a duty to raise the population’s living standards by leveraging on technology that may impinge on nature’s ambit. 

[colourful closing BANG!] At the end of the day, no Singaporean wishes to live in a concrete jungle. Neither does she prefer to starve under the stars.

Qn: In your society, how well are the demands of the economy and the environment balanced? (Cam. 2015)

Lionel Messi, Saudi Arabia and deal that paid off for both sides

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shared with his 400 million-plus followers on Instagram

The contract shows that Messi could receive as much as 22.5 million euros (S$32.96 million) over three years for little actual work: a few commercial appearances, a handful of social media posts and some all-expenses-paid vacations to the kingdom with his family and children.

Saudi Arabia’s critics deride the strategy as sportswashing: using sports and sports figures to whitewash the country’s human rights record, its treatment of women, its killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and other authoritarian actions...For the past few years, Saudi Arabia has spent billions to take big stakes in professional sports: The purchase of an English Premier League soccer team. Championship boxing matches. A stop in the Formula One auto racing schedule. And, most recently, a brazen incursion into professional golf.

Qns:  

1. Consider the view that celebrities are overpaid.

2. Does sport merit the vast sums of money that are spent on it? (Cam. 2010)

Thailand justifies talks with Myanmar as key Asean members stay away

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We suffer more than others because Thailand has a more than 3,000km shared land border (with other countries) as well as a maritime border,

Qn: How far should countries have relations with others whose human rights record is poor? (Cam. 2019)

100,000 corals to be planted in Singapore waters, Big Sister’s Island to reopen in 2024

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About 60 per cent of Singapore’s reef area has been lost to land reclamation.

For those whom we discussed recently about how the building of man-made tourist attractions led to sedimentation which destroyed the corals, think of this article as a rebuttal.....

 

A growing problem: South Korea’s obsession with height and hormones

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In a country where looks are everything, South Korean parents go to great lengths to help their children, especially boys, grow a few extra centimetres to boost their confidence and physical appeal. Many spend a fortune on vitamins, herbal medicine, acupuncture, injections and even surgery. 

people are influenced by images of tall celebrities and Western standards of beauty. “Height is an important success factor in the highly-competitive Korean society,” he told ST. “People think that being tall is advantageous in schools, workplaces, and human relationships, and guarantees a high salary.” 

“If you ask me why height is so important, it is because society made it this way. Companies conduct interviews and hire people not just based on skills but also physical features.”

Qn: To what extent are people judged more by their physical appearance than by their abilities? (Cam. 2017)

Alternate worlds’ hold key to the future of museums

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the museum’s Sensory Odyssey show relies on the latest technology and science to create an immersive visitor experience, with high-definition video footage of creatures great and small – from sperm whales to honeybees. Spatial audio and specially created scents transport visitors into unique ecosystems, from the Indian Ocean to the African savannah.

Even as they engage and entertain, the best museums stimulate new learning.

There is another societal good that museums can contribute to: the possibility of uplifting visitors with mental health issues, through the immersive and welcoming environments found in many museums. NMS and NGS have led the way on this, with special programmes and tours scheduled for seniors with dementia and their caregivers.

Qn: 'Children should be banned from visiting museums.' Discuss. (ACJC Prelim 2014)

Success is less about means, more about meaning, says DPM Wong on renewing social compact

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For qns on definitions of success....

Peace is not ‘no war’ and derisking has risks: Josep Borrell

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Third, who is the biggest aid donor to developing countries? Who has been the biggest exporter and donor of vaccines? Europe. 

Decoupling means we are not going to engage economically with China. Every day, our trade with China is around US$2.7 billion. Every day! So, decoupling? Forget about it. ....Derisking is different, it’s about avoiding risk. We have to avoid excessive dependencies. When Covid-19 came, we discovered that in Europe, we don’t produce a single gram of paracetamol. All paracetamol was produced in India or China. And in the pandemic, this became a problem. So we have to reduce such excessive dependencies.

I am very much engaged with our Asean partners on the effects of our deforestation policies. When we say stop deforestation, we have to take into account how that affects other people and countries. Palm oil is one example, which has been at the centre of a lot of controversy.

For qns on competition vs cooperation....consider the dangers and downsides of cooperation as mentioned above in decoupling/derisking..... 

The pain of feeling invisible in prosperous Singapore

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For qns on loneliness.....

Economist, sportsman and poet: 6 things about SM Tharman, who will run for president

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“I think a lot of what I am was actually shaped in my school days ....You learn to take knocks, to go in for the tackle, and to live with your scars. You rely on your teammates; you lead, you win and lose as a team.” 

For qns on sport....

Singapore-born comedian’s joke about MH370 ‘appalling’, says Vivian

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Qns:

1. ‘In a free society, there should be no restrictions on freedom of speech.’ Discuss. (Cam. 2020)

2.  Can humour ever be serious? (Cam. 2012)

Facebook takes down group containing child sexual exploitation material: IMDA

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The amended Broadcasting Act empowers IMDA to issue orders to social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to take down egregious content. This includes posts advocating suicide, self-harm, child sexual exploitation and terrorism, as well as material that may incite racial and religious tensions, or pose a risk to public health.

Qn: ‘It is harder than ever to keep children safe in today’s world.’ Comment. (RI 2023 J2 Mid-yr)

Interest in Thai sarong surges after Blackpink’s Lisa wears one

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Example of celebrity influence....good for BANG!

Qn: Comsider the view tha celebrities are overpaid. 

Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami sends ticket prices soaring 1,034%

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Example of celebrity influence....good for BANG!

The lowest price for a ticket for that game on Tuesday was a mere US$29 (S$39), but on Wednesday the price rocketed to US$329 – a 1,034 per cent jump – according to TickPick.

Qn: Consider the view that celebrities are overpaid. 

Britain bans Shell, Repsol and Petronas ‘greenwashing’ ads

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Earlier, a TV commercial that ran in September for Malaysian oil major Petronas said it was “enriching lives for a sustainable future”, but the ASA said the ad failed to mention the company’s significant carbon emissions and gave the misleading impression that Petronas was already having a positive environmental impact. 

Shell was dinged by the ASA for a poster, YouTube video and TV commercial that ran in June 2022, all of which used the phrase “cleaner energy”. The regulator said the ads were misleading because they elided the fact that the “vast majority” of Shell’s activities relate to oil and gas.

“Not because what they were saying in the ads was untrue in and of themselves, but because of what they weren’t saying.”

For qns on advertising, climate change....etc...

Indonesia says it can reach net-zero emissions by 2055, five years ahead of target

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Indonesia is a leading coal exporter and more than 60 per cent of the nation’s electricity is generated by burning the fuel, which is the single-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions heating up the planet. 

The Indonesian government has been working closely with donor governments, banks and foundations to help accelerate the green transition,

In 2022, Indonesia reached two deals to help accelerate the early closure of coal-fired power plants. 

In the largest deal, wealthy nations – including the United States and Japan – agreed to provide Indonesia with US$20 billion (S$27 billion) in public and private finance.

For qns on international cooperation and climate issues...

Online search is changing, so must digital skills

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ChatGPT offers a significant advancement on information retrieval through search engines. As a conversational chatbot that understands natural language questions and responds with natural language answers that efficiently summarise large and diverse swathes of knowledge

search engines... largely present search results in the form of hits as brief text extracts from relevant websites, accompanied by hyperlinks.Users must then undertake a laborious DIY process of deciding which hits to click on, peruse the information on different websites, assess the information by determining its relevance, reliability and provenance. We must review reams of information distributed across multiple windows and attempt to reconcile contradictory or doubtful points. This is a cognitively burdensome task that users certainly do not undertake with equal domain knowledge and digital fluency.

how might human skills of processing and assessing information atrophy over time when pre-fab answers to all searches are swiftly generated and neatly delivered?

The hazard of using conversational AI-powered search services is that even though they are error-prone, they exude tremendous confidence.

Qn: To what extent has technology had a negative impact on the skill levels of people? (Cam. 2010)

Time for a global plastics treaty

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The aim is not to demonise plastics – they have many valuable uses, from food hygiene to their role in the medical and aerospace sectors. Instead, the world’s immense appetite for single-use plastics has to end, and efforts to capture and reuse plastics must dramatically scale up.

One million plastic bottles are purchased every minute and up to five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year, according to UNEP

In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used once and then thrown away. 

Millions of tonnes of waste end up in rivers and oceans every year, killing wildlife from seabirds to whales. The world is also awash with trillions of microplastic particles, which have been found in the stomachs of marine life and in human blood.

Qn: Should plastic be banned? (RI 2023 J2 Mid-yr)

Tiger conservation in India saved at least one million tonnes of CO2 from being emitted: Study

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rescuing the country’s iconic big cat from extinction – has a dual benefit of mitigating carbon emissions by preventing deforestation....At least one million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) have been saved thus far – a climate co-benefit reaped from decades of tiger conservation

Qn: Since the extinction of species is a natural phenomenon, is there any point in trying to prevent it? (Cam. 2022)

Interesting Nugget.....

Interesting closing BANG on an article about the rivalry btw Singapore and Hong Kong..