I have spent so much time contemplating what Singapore would look like without an abundance of cheap oil. While peak oil proponents might sound doomsday-ish to many, they don’t catch the drift that the doomsday only comes if you ignore the problem. Once one recognises the problem and start to plan for it, there is a good chance people will do well in the face of this unprecedented problem

I realised I haven’t mentioned anything about how I think Singapore can address the Peak Oil issue. Here are some of my thoughts, summarised of course:

  1. Create awareness (not panic) – the more people get to know about peak oil, the more we’ll have constructive discussions about it. From this, people can decide to take action each in their own ways to contribute, from living a more sustainable lifestyle to championing new programs at the community level. Reaching out to various organs of our nation state is important too.
  2. Groom pioneers – there will be people (like me) who will be ready to take on personal ownership of the problem. For starters, I feel that there should be a group of pioneers who would voluntarily move and live in an ecovillage. There, they would acquire skills and knowledge on how to live sustainably. Such knowledge would then permeate to other modes of housing in Singapore, of primary importance would be our HDB (public housing).
  3. Renewable sources of energy – our power industry is entirely fed by oil and gas. It is not wise to go down this trend any further without seriously considering the merits of renewable energy product like solar and wind. If not for anything, everyone else is looking into it, there has to be strong reasons why. Don’t jump to conclusions before conducting proper feasibility studies. Without a good 50-60% of our power sources coming from renewable sources, Singapore will be exposed fully to the brunt of world energy chaos.
  4. Grow our own food. My recollection of WWII comes from tales told to me by my grandaunt – of how people would starve, eat tapioca and have to struggle to scrap for a handful of rice. A high-tech-manufacturing and services-oriented Singapore might have no need for her own agricultural sector. But, in a world where every country would hold on selfishly (rightly so) onto its own resources, we as a nation have to think about where food is going to come from. Is it time now to encourage people to take up farming?

From here on, I’ll be focusing on each of these topics separately. I’ve spent alot of time reading and researching, it’s time to start pushing my ideas out.