As societal efforts struggle to keep up with the intensification of the global ecological threat, alternative non-science-based messaging and narratives have emerged to persuade segments of society of the need to do more to address climate change. Among these, have been narratives that have been grounded within a faith-based ethos. This has been described by some scholars as a “greening” of religions. Singapore is no exception to this development. In addition to numerous secular organisations—which have been largely youth-led—several religious environmental groups have also emerged and become active advocates for environmentalism. These groups have chosen to adopt a non-science, faith-based messaging in encouraging the public to do their part to combat climate change. Existing literature on religious environmentalism has remained relatively Western-centric, meaning that research on religious environmentalism in Southeast Asia remains scarce. The chapter addresses this lacuna by presenting examples of ground-up religious environmental groups in Singapore, specifically Our Father’s World, FiTree, Joyful Garden Sangha, and Climate Interfaith. Of particular interest are the ways in which these groups have actively utilised technology—especially social media—to communicate as well as advocate for environmentally friendly and/or sustainable practices. As a core element of these organisations’ work involves communicating the urgency and need for environmentalism and sustainability to their respective target communities, we find that most adopt a two-pronged approach where social media and online means are used to raise awareness of the cause while offline initiatives such as workshops and nature walks are used to turn awareness into action.

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Growing Roots: Examining the Emergence of Ground-Up Religious Environmental Groups in Singapore

  • Amanda Huan,
  • Claribel Low Sin

摘要

As societal efforts struggle to keep up with the intensification of the global ecological threat, alternative non-science-based messaging and narratives have emerged to persuade segments of society of the need to do more to address climate change. Among these, have been narratives that have been grounded within a faith-based ethos. This has been described by some scholars as a “greening” of religions. Singapore is no exception to this development. In addition to numerous secular organisations—which have been largely youth-led—several religious environmental groups have also emerged and become active advocates for environmentalism. These groups have chosen to adopt a non-science, faith-based messaging in encouraging the public to do their part to combat climate change. Existing literature on religious environmentalism has remained relatively Western-centric, meaning that research on religious environmentalism in Southeast Asia remains scarce. The chapter addresses this lacuna by presenting examples of ground-up religious environmental groups in Singapore, specifically Our Father’s World, FiTree, Joyful Garden Sangha, and Climate Interfaith. Of particular interest are the ways in which these groups have actively utilised technology—especially social media—to communicate as well as advocate for environmentally friendly and/or sustainable practices. As a core element of these organisations’ work involves communicating the urgency and need for environmentalism and sustainability to their respective target communities, we find that most adopt a two-pronged approach where social media and online means are used to raise awareness of the cause while offline initiatives such as workshops and nature walks are used to turn awareness into action.