from the ground Up

So Al Gore’s on my twitter feed, and he alerted us to a great piece in the FT by Prof Nicholas Stern and Joseph Stiglitz, which I thought was very well-argued.

Had a debate with a colleague at lunch yesterday and he argued that the problem with climate change-related stories is that it assumes everyone believes in climate change, but the reality is everyone is not convinced.

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, climate change is a subject that involves a degree of foresight. When humanity actually witnesses the full-scale of the effects of climate change, it will have been too late. Already, we are seeing the first wave of its consequences, from Hurricane Katrina, to Victoria’s bushfires, and still some choose to be what Dr Pachauri labels as, “deliberately ignorant”.

What is especially discouraging is you actually see this “deliberate ignorance” exemplified in mass media, especially from some comments and letters from readers, who tell you to “get real” when you talk about making a difference, however minute, in your own actions.

The reality is people - the general masses - are not going to sacrifice their standard of living, whatever they might say, so the only solution is to revolutionize the world’s services, products, and infrastructure, so that the same standard of living can be enjoyed - preferrably with some conscious reduction of consumption on our part - while ensuring that our consumption and way of life is sustainable.

Let’s say, hypothetically, climate change doesn’t exist. Let me ask this question then: Are there any, what economists call “negative externalities”, to greening our economy anyway?

At the very worst, if climate change turned out to be exxagerated, we have a world economy that’s far more sustainable. If we don’t address it, however, the worst-case scenario is probably beyond even our imagination. Will you risk facing that sort of future, just because you want to be stubbornly ignorant today?

Something Prof Stern said in Abu Dhabi recently really resonated with me: “Let’s remember, there are many benefits that come with this low-carbon economy: a quieter, less polluted, more energy-secure, more biodiverse world, if we stop deforestation and pollution. This is a very attractive proposition.”

I completely agree with him, and it baffles me that anyone in our modern, supposedly educated society, could still be “unconvinced” of our global problems. More revealingly, such parochial mindsets say more about the person than anything else. If they are the majority, perhaps then the world is doomed already.

Following that 6 page report on climate change that was published the week before, it’s been quiet on my front due to a (very painful) wisdom teeth surgery.

So that explains the lack of updates lately, and also, the stuff I’ve been writing recently were more results season stories (boring) and didn’t think it was worth putting up here. Working on other stories now and getting back into the swing of things again.

Quite soon, this site will solely be dedicated to my work at the newspaper, covering mainly property, housing and journalism issues.

All my work on energy, the environment and climate change will be migrated to a new site dedicated to environmental business news and stories. Can’t wait for that to finally be launched.

by Jessica Cheam, The Straits Times, October 29 2008
UNDETERRED by gloomy sentiment in the local financial and private property market, Chinese firm QingJian Realty is launching Singapore’s fourth condo-style public housing project on Friday.
Natura Loft at Bishan, a project under the Housing Board’s Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), will feature three 40-storey blocks of [...]

The Straits Times got a new look today, since it’s last revamp four years ago.

There has been much discussion about its makeover, what’s good, and what can be improved… but if there’s one thing I have to single out, which I’m happy about, is the fact we’ve now got an ST blog.

For years, cutting-edge newspapers in Europe and the US have moved quickly to “own the online space” and I’ve often wondered why we did not have the same.

So now we do, and hopefully this will give our readers more insight into the experiences of local journalists as we carry out our daily jobs and interviews, reporting from the ground.

You can go here The Straits Times Blogs to have a look and leave some comments.

I have written a post Who wins with no agent fee rules? as part of the first lift-off of our new online sites.

Day 3 of my stake-out and I’ve hit jackpot.

You know, that rush when you know you’ve got all the gems for your story. I can’t say too much, since the story is not published yet, but this week has been hard. I’ve been working daily shifts from 9am to 7pm, then going to some blocks of flats after work to investigate and get more facts/quotes for my story. It was gruelling, at times demoralizing, and most of all, humbling.

So much for capitalism, I saw for myself how the country’s economic boom hasn’t benefited everyone, people living in one-room flats, sparse with furniture, paint peeling, and I thought about how lucky I was, and promptly felt very embarrassed about my earthly desires.

Interestingly, I had a conversation with a colleague today who has, sadly, just resigned. We were debating on the profession and its merits. He said he’s leaving because at the end of the day, journalism doesn’t pay that well and sometimes, it’s just too much leg work. Leg work of the sort I’ve been doing for the past week.

On my part, I have always loved journalism. From the days as an intern, to days of being a temp in London newspapers, to my full-time job now, I have loved (almost) every minute of it. I like the job, what it offers, the people I meet (not all), the flexibility, the unpredictability, the very nature of it - but obviously it’s not the easiest job on earth.

But to me, journalism is all about the ground work. You can’t sit in ivory towers pretending to know what’s happening below, or dish out stories based on phone calls you make - what someone once said to me was phoney journalism.

I have to agree, though, there’s the easy leg work, and the difficult leg work. And there’s different kinds of work you have to do, depending on your beat. For general news, there is definitely much more running around, speaking to strangers, trying not to get the door slammed too quickly in your face… For business journalism, there isn’t the physical tediousness of knocking on doors, speaking to heartlanders, people on the ground etc, so you could say it’s an easier kind of journalism. But then, deciphering documents, financial statements, and balance sheets, is gruelling work of a different nature. And grooming contacts for that business story of the month - be it an M&A deal, a corporate scandal or a high-profile resignation - is also not easy to achieve and involves years of “working the ground”.

I can’t say which I prefer, although I think what I’m doing right now is the healthy dose of each for me. Perhaps I’m privileged to be covering beats I’m actually interested in, and that the scope of my work enables me to do a wide spectrum of “working the ground”. I love that I can be interviewing Lord Nicholas Stern on climate change one day, and then be speaking to a 70-year-old retired uncle who lives in a one-room flat about prostitutes on the other.

The truth is, you’ve got to love everything about journalism to want to do this for life. I’m not surprised my colleague is leaving. It’s a job that isn’t sustainable if you don’t love it completely. And not many do. For me, work doesn’t really feel like work because I enjoy what I do. J oftens says to me he’s so envious that I know what I like, and I’m doing it. For him, his work is a chore, a burden to bear, sales targets that will never ease… It’s the reason why I sleep like a baby at night, and sleep often eludes him while he tosses and turns and murmurs the names of his sales clients each night (which wake me up, btw!).

So although I’m really tired from the past few nights, doing what I was doing, going places that I wasn’t invited, and not being really sure if the story is going to be worth all that, I do it because it’s my job.

And I’m lucky enough to like it.