{"id":1981,"date":"2011-07-29T15:07:30","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T19:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2011-07-29T15:18:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T19:18:29","slug":"singapore-gets-greener-even-as-it-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/?p=1981","title":{"rendered":"Biodiversity in Singapore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sonia Kolesnikow Jessop, NEW YORK TIMES, July 28, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> The math is impressive. In the last 25 years, the population of Singapore has nearly doubled, to more than five million. Over the same period, its green cover \u2014 planted areas that appear green on satellite photos, from parks to rooftops \u2014 has increased from a little more than a third of the city-state\u2019s area to nearly half.<\/p>\n

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But it is not enough. In Singapore\u2019s next \u201cgreen road map,\u201d its 10-year development plan, the country aims to go from being \u201ca garden city\u201d to \u201ca city in a garden.\u201d \u201cThe difference might sound very small,\u201d says Poon Hong Yuen, the chief executive of the country\u2019s National Parks Board, \u201cbut it\u2019s a bit like saying my house has a garden and my house is in the middle of a garden. What it means is having pervasive greenery, as well as biodiversity, including wildlife, all around you.\u201d<\/p>\n

More and more cities are waking up to the need to be more than sweatshops on a citywide scale. Singapore rose to international prominence by constructing a country that was orderly and efficient. But being globally competitive today is about more than productivity. It is about sustainability, too.<\/p>\n

In order to attract so-called knowledge workers, in industries like computing, biotechnology and other forms of new technology, a city has to be an appealing place to work, play, live, and raise a family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve moved into the more knowledge-based industries, they bring along talent who like to live in a great city,\u201d said Mr. Poon. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer about being well tended, but also about the liveability, the excitement of living in a great city \u2014 and biodiversity is part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the United Nations, more than half of the world\u2019s population lived in cities in 2008 and that percentage is set to rise to 70 percent by 2050.<\/p>\n

Singapore ranked 28th in the Mercer 2010 Quality of Living survey of the world\u2019s most liveable cities, and in 22nd place as an Eco-City. It tied with San Francisco in 51st position in The Economist\u2019s index of the World\u2019s Most Liveable Cities, making it the fourth-best city to live in Asia after Osaka, Tokyo and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Singapore aggressively pursued its reputation as a green city as early as the 1960s and 1970s, when the newly independent country was in the rush of rapid economic development and urbanization. While the authorities built thousands of public housing blocks, they also planted trees and shrubs along the main highway bringing visitors from the airport to the city center. At the time, the government was attempting to attract a certain type of foreign investment, particularly manufacturing, and the key justification for having well-tended trees and parks was an economic one: to underscore to investors that the country was well run, well tended, and stable.<\/p>\n

With economic policies focusing in recent years on developing creative industries and the service sector, Singapore is facing new pressures to attract talent. And with many companies in Asia, in particular, reporting a dearth of high-skilled talent, offering international companies and their employees a greener working environment becomes a big selling point.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be frank, we did not have a very conscious idea to conserve biodiversity right from the beginning. That was not the blueprint,\u201d Mr. Poon said. \u201cFor a very long time, we focused only on plants and it has worked very well for us, but now we feel that to engage people and get them excited, especially the young, we need to include a wildlife component and moving forward we want to do more.\u201d [Read rest of article]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While New York City wrangles over a few bike paths, Singapore is not only adding green space, it’s determined to turn itself from a city with gardens to “a city within a garden” with biodiversity considerations usually foreign to urban concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1280,1279,1282,1281,1278],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itstheenvironmentstupid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}