Putting into practice what she learned about climate change

What scope of research are you involved in?

Under this internship, I was first tasked with crafting interview questions for both the experts and the public regarding their understanding of climate change in Singapore. I conducted a literature review on communication pathways, capabilities and effectiveness of climate risks to the public. I also collected data on specific and unconventional ways of climate mitigation.

Concurrently, I was dissecting the 5th assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This process has helped me draft guidelines on how to understand the IPCC reports. The draft guidelines will be used as instruction materials for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) which is being developed by the Institute. I have also compiled a directory of existing channels for risk communication in today’s context.

What is the significance of this research in terms of improving the public understanding of risk and striving towards tangible impact in society?

I think it is vital that individuals have a fundamental level of understanding of climate science, and knowledge as to how their individual actions can impact the health of our Earth. When public perception is skewed or misaligned, it is very easy to brush aside the responsibility of keeping the Earth healthy.

The two projects I’ve been working on eases the public into the world of climate science, with facts that are presented in a more digestible and relatable manner. For example, framing climate arguments as issues which are more relatable, such as health, safety issue and even biodiversity issues, which they are of course. More importantly, this requires a nuanced understanding what is relevant for specific communities of people and what might push the public to make change. For that we first have to understand how they perceive risks, and how to guide them through making tangible and lifestyle changes, and that’s what IPUR strives to do. 

What do you hope to see achieved through this research?

I hope to help individuals realise how the convenience in their lives often come at the cost of our Earth’s health, and sometimes making change isn’t so difficult. And it’s only challenging because of the gaps in communicating climate science. Personally, I hope the first project, which is meant for the ministerial stakeholder, can elucidate the gaps in our citizens’ capacities to make change, and thereafter urge for the creation of efficient, effective and relatively straightforward policies to circumvent the climate issue in Singapore, particularly sea-level rise and the increasing urban heat given our low-lying coastal regions plus compact urban form.

For the second project on the MOOC, we hope keen individuals could have a better understanding of reading the IPCC reports, and also that policymakers can extract specific elements of the report to produce policies that are effective and contextualised. 

What are your areas of interest when it comes to research and perhaps closing gaps between risk perception and reality?

I have a special interest in exploring in what ways communities or specific groups of people are vulnerable to the risks that they face and how they cope and adapt to these changes in the face of natural hazards. Because of natural hazards, these communities often become plagued with a myriad of issues from lack of access to healthcare, emotional trauma, loss of livelihood and so on. Last year I was conducting fieldwork in the slums in Bandung, Indonesia, for an internship aiming to address how slum communities have different adaptive capacities and coping mechanisms in the face of natural hazards. I learnt that these communities experienced an array of natural hazards ranging from frequent floods, to unprecedented earthquakes, to hostile whirlwinds or “Devil Dusts” which the locals call anging puting beliung.

What I found interesting was the existence of gaps in how the community perceived these risks. For example, they seemed to often feel fatalistic and accept the way their lives were when in reality, more could be done. I think much of the work should go into communicating the fact that more should be done, and that’s often the most overlooked and challenging part. Communicating these knowledges include contextualising information and making them comprehensible through the right means, for example through social media, or newspaper articles, whatever best suits the community. In the slum context, rather, many lacked accesses to required technologies and that poses a challenge to rally any social change or to communicate mitigation policies. 

What has been your biggest learning experience at IPUR?

Personally, I would say I have really learned to stretch my understanding of climate science through the meetings and feedback sessions I’ve had with Dr Olivia Jensen. I felt like I really pushed myself to think out of the box, and foray into more unfamiliar and less acquainted segments of climate science that are yet so crucial. Dr Jensen is a highly reputed researcher and it is an honour to be working alongside her with these projects. In our meetings she is always pushing for new ideas, new thoughts, providing new insights.

Working with her gave me a very fruitful and enjoyable experience (also for how jolly she always is!). If anything, I was able to freely express my opinions about current issues relating to climate change in Singapore and it broadened my knowledge gap and skill sets such as through proper interviewing techniques and professionalism. 

What has it been like working from home during your internship?

It was fairly odd and a little awkward at times, because I haven’t been able to interact with most, if not all, of the people working at IPUR as much as I would have hoped to! We have bi-weekly seminars and from those I get a rough idea of what everyone is interested in and is currently involved with, but I think it would have been much better having face-to-face real-life interaction.

Communicating things while working from home can get very inefficient as well – emails are good but going back and forth back and forth about ideas and information can sometimes be slow. But of course, working from home has its blessings as well – such as working within the comforts of your home (but you must exercise some self-discipline!) and having your resources all readily available whenever you need them (a reference book, or journals etc). Nonetheless, it has been a fruitful three months, and if I could, I wouldn’t mind working from home again.