Should our health and life be sacrificed at the altar of hyped economic benefits of the F1 Grand Prix?
Environment & Water Resource Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan is quoted as saying:
“On his Facebook page this evening (21 Sep) at about 7pm, Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said the deteriorating hazy conditions are due to an incoming haze cloud from Sumatra.”
“In his 11.45 Facebook message commented, quote: “Glad the F1 race went well. See how widely the one-hourly PM2.5 levels fluctuated.”
On close reading of the report, I was amazed that the Environment Minister is more concerned with how well the F1 Grand Prix went than how the hazy conditions on the night of the Grand Prix WORSENED during the hours “sport” was held.
Tongue in cheek while saying “Glad the F1 race went well”, he nonchalantly asks us to “See “how widely the one-hourly PM2.5 levels fluctuated”!
Let’s have a close look at this “fluctuation” in the table PSI that accompanied his Facebook messages:
From the table, we can note:
At 6pm (BEFORE THE START OF GRAND PRIX) the readings for all locations (except East) were lowest.
From 7pm – 10pm (WHEN THE GRAND PRIX WAS HELD) all the readings rose, soaring to peak at 8pm (with West peaking at 9pm), and easing off from 9pm to 11pm.
Even at 11pm all the readings (except for 1-point-lower East) were higher than the conditions at 6pm (BEFORE GRAND PRIX STARTED)
These observations CLEARLY show that the hazy conditions on the night of 21 September 2014 WORSENED DURING HOURS OF THE F1 RACE.
As Environment & Water Resource Minister, Dr V Balakrishnan couldn’t have failed to notice this important fact.
This begs the questions:
Was this worsening of the haze conditions caused by the F1 Race or was it a nice co-incidence?
I believe it WAS caused by the F1 Race, given the Indonesian government’s announcement that their CLOUD-SEEDING ACTIVITY THAT SAME DAY HAD REDUCED THE NUMBER OF HOTSPOTS IN SUMATRA FROM 64 TO 31.
As Minister of the Environment, why did he perfunctorily tell us to see the FLUCTUATION, ignoring the WORSENED POLLUTION?
Isn’t he, as a (medical?) doctor, also aware that some folks (especially those with respiratory, lungs or heart conditions ) could be critically affected by the worsened (unhealthy-level) pollution? Shouldn’t he have warned them about the risk?
As a Minister of the Environment, isn’t it his duty to protect the environment against avoidable pollution, as in this case.
Did he vote in favour of hosting this highly resource-wasting and noise-and-air polluting “sport” of super-rich dare-devils, in land-scarce Singapore?
Isn’t the decision in favor of F1 Grand Prix rather than protection of the environment another manifestation of PAP gahmen’s money-driven policies?
Shouldn’t the protection of the environment, and hence the health and well-being of SG’s population, take priority over economic and glamor considerations?
Why o why, should our health and life be sacrificed at the altar of hyped economic benefits of the F1 Grand Prix?
We should stop hosting the Grand Prix. What do you think?
Edward