By Audrey Tan

Over the weekend, I bought the book “Poems to Save the World With”. Compiled by Chris Riddell, it is a collection of verses that has, according to reviewers, helped readers find bedtime solace amid tumultuous times. 

It was first published in 2020, but I never felt I needed it more than now. 

I’ve been on leave the past two weeks recuperating from the year, which was in my view one of the toughest years for the environment in recent times. 

Geopolitics and domestic issues have displaced climate change from national agendas and people’s mindspaces, even though the vignettes of climate disaster are inching closer and closer to home. 

Floods have ravaged countries near Singapore, including Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. These flooding events, attributed to cyclones that made landfall in these countries, were made worse by climate change. 

Even as I write this, my colleague

Hui Shan Chin

is in Sri Lanka with the Red Cross to document the impact of the flooding on the lives and livelihoods of people there. It’s been more than a month since Cyclone Ditwah hit the country , but recovery efforts are still ongoing. The ST team there is learning how damage from such disasters lingers long after the clouds dissipate and the skies clear. 

In late November, one of these cyclonic storms, which usually steer clear of the Equator, came close to Singapore in a rare occurrence. This highlights how in this anthropocene – the current era we live in where our environment is shaped by human activities – we should be ready to expect anything. 

Nature is also suffering. Coral reefs, the natural habitat I most adore and the one on which so many coastal communities are reliant upon for food, recreation and livelihoods, are reeling from rising sea temperatures. The 2023 to 2025 bleaching event is the most widespread on record, according to scientists. 

Yet, the urgency to tackle the problem seems lacking from our day-to-day. What are we missing? 

There are solutions to phase out fossil fuels and save nature. But they often lack the political or financial backing to be scaled up. 

Over the past year, we have also seen growing attention to adaptation, or efforts to protect countries from these deleterious impacts of climate change. This is important to reduce damage from climate-driven disasters, but I can’t help but wonder if this will lead some quarters to think we can adapt our way out of the crisis. 

As the year draws to a close, I found myself sinking into a bit of a rut while mulling over this quandary, and the role media outlets like
The Straits Times
have in calling attention to the crisis in a way that spurs action, and not fuel disillusionment. Any suggestions on this are welcome – email me at audreyt@sph.com.sg. 

But over the past two weeks, after spending some time at a sea turtle conservation centre in Khao Lak and perusing the poetry anthology, I realised how critical it is for each of us to have a reason to see the environment as something still worth fighting for – despite the inaction of the powers that be, despite the damage already wrought, and despite the slow progress of scaling solutions. 

What publications like ST can do is to help people find that reason – whether it be highlighting little-known problems that could spur the search for solutions, interviewing people who are doing their best to make a difference for people and for nature, or explaining the technicalities of new solutions that could improve understanding of a complex issue. 

In 2026, the environment team at ST will strive to continue to do so. 

But until then, I leave you with a poem by Wendell Berry that struck a chord with me.

“When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”