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 ecological balance sheet
Has been showing huge deficits.
The COVID-19 has come as a reminder
To stay home and let Nature recover.
But still we continue in our old ways
And run our usual business as always.
Thus, the heat shall keep on rising,
The floods shall come without warning.
Our biodiversity shall keep on dwindling;
Do we want to bear the brunt of global warming?
Ecological grief
This deforestation of a part of Pasir Ris Park deserves a national mourning. I believe many are grieving the loss of the forest and its wildlife residents, as well as the loss of fresh cool air in the vicinity.
I hope that as the environmental issues gain awareness, more people will join our collective resolve to cherish and conserve what really matters in life.
As noted in an article on understanding ecological grief noted:
“There is much grief work to be done, and much of it will be hard. However, being open to the pain of ecological loss may be what is needed to prevent such losses from occurring in the first place.”
Nature and Us 