Trembling in the Tropics

Right now I'm sitting in my office blogging and eating lunch at the same time, and although Singapore is a tropical country, I've got my nice, warm jacket on. Why? Because the central air-conditioning here is just too cold for my comfort. Ironically, here's an article from the Straits Times today. Note the title:

ST Oct 29, 2009
S'pore a green building hub
New council to boost green construction; deal with UN unit to promote best practices
By Jessica Cheam

SINGAPORE took two major steps on Wednesday in its drive to position itself
at the forefront of the increasingly vital field of 'green' construction practices and technologies ....

I'm not here today to discuss whether Singapore is indeed a "green building" hub or not. I just wanted to point out another example of poor sub-editing by our mainstream media.

Once again, there's a big mismatch between the title of the article, and its actual content. The actual content makes no claim whatsoever that Singapore is a "green building hub". Instead it says that (1) a new council has been set up to promote sustainable construction, (2) the BCA has signed some document to promote good building practices, and (3) Singapore has the ambition to be the "green building hub" of the tropics.

Now, having the ambition to be something is quite different from actually being it. This should be a rather obvious point, but I guess it eluded the ST sub-editors.

The rest of the article is below. Now, please excuse me while I go and shiver .... Brrrrr.

A Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) has been set up to promote sustainable construction. This includes driving efforts to green at least 80 per cent of buildings here by 2030.

And the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Environment Programme to collaborate on promoting best building practices across Asia.

The move fits in with the Government's aim to set up a Centre of Excellence in sustainable building and construction in the future to cement Singapore's ambition to be the green building hub of the tropics. Details will be released later, said the BCA.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean announced the new council at the opening ceremony of the inaugural three-day International Green Building Conference held at Suntec convention centre on Wednesday.

Mr Teo noted that even as the world tackles the global economic downturn, 'we are faced with a policy imperative... that of ensuring sustainable development for our current generation, so that our future generations will have a future'.