December 2020
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Saving an endangered Changeable Hawk-eagle in Singapore
A couple of days ago, I was on my way to Dover forest after finishing my lunch shift when I met an eagle near the Greenway. Now, it isn’t every day that I meet an eagle on my journey, so seeing one fairly up close is a treat for me. But oddly enough, when I… Continue reading
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Bukit Batok Hillside Park area: what it used to be, and what we may lose if parts of the forest are destroyed for development
This post is a summary of the open petition letter that I have sent to the authorities on 24 December 2020 regarding the conservation of the entire Bukit Batok Hillside Park (BBHP) area. This area was formerly joined together with its neighbouring forested hill to form a long continuous ridge. For more details on why… Continue reading
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Jurong Lake Clean-up campaign: Volunteering experiences
It was a straw that broke the Internet and started a worldwide environmental movement. Was it the straw that broke the camel’s back? Yes, symbolically it was. Was it the straw that was stuck in a sea turtle’s nostril, as shown in a viral video in 2015? Yes, literally it was. It was the final… Continue reading
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Forest tour at Bukit Batok Hillside Park area
On 12 December 2020, I conducted my first tour at Bukit Batok Hillside Park area as a volunteer guide. Normally, I would baulk at the idea of being a tour guide due to my shy and introverted nature (and being hard of hearing). But the stakes of losing much of the secondary rainforest habitat and… Continue reading
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Why we need to conserve our forests instead of destroying them in the name of unsustainable development
Why do we need to conserve our forests instead of destroying them in the name of unsustainable development? You may have read about the reasons in school textbooks. You may have also read about them on news media and/or social media. You have probably watched documentaries about them too. But perhaps nothing is better than… Continue reading
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Is Singapore really a green habitat teeming with wildlife? Is it also getting cooler or warmer?
Yesterday was a sunny day, as testified by those of us who commuted or worked outdoors. Thanks to the cyclical La Nina effect and northeast monsoon season, the tropical heat has been slightly less intense lately. Still, I had to laugh when my friend forwarded to me yesterday’s news article. It was a mirthless inaudible… Continue reading
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Ecological crisis and ecological grief
Ecological crisis Our island is getting warmer;Our rivers are becoming muddier;Our forests are getting thinner;Our wildlife are becoming fewer. It takes years for trees to grow together,Decades for forests to mature,Centuries for habitats to thrive,But only days to destroy all their lives. The resources aren’t for us to deplete;We have long overdrawn our credits.Our national… Continue reading
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My Feedback on the Survey on Wild Animals in Pasir Ris Estate
The following is my feedback submitted via the survey form regarding wild animals in Pasir Ris Estate, Singapore. The context of the wild boar attack on a woman in Sungei Api Api Park on 17 Nov 2020 must be established. Firstly, the incident happened near Pasir Ris Park, which is being developed for housing and is… Continue reading
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Help save our critically endangered straw-headed bulbuls and their natural habitats
As dead as a dodo? Not our bulbuls, please. Have you heard of the idiom “as dead as a dodo”? The dodo is an unusual bird that used to live only on the remote island of Mauritius. It is also one of the most well-known examples of human-induced extinction. When the sailors arrived in Mauritus… Continue reading