Singapore is a multi-racial country with a diverse race of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian. Due to the varied ethnic mix, we also have a diversified religious beliefs and practices. The one that we will be zooming into today would be Buddhism and how this religion affects human response to nature. Buddhism consideration includes taking care of the biosphere-home and not inflicting harm to any living being using our knowledge (Harvey, 2007). With this consideration, Buddhism is supposed to be encouraging conservation in human. However, some rituals and ceremonial involve heavy burning practices during deity worshipping in temples or at home.

Retrieved from http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/in-the-heartlands/burning-joss-paper-near-petrol-station-is-it-safe

Joss paper burning practices produces non-stop heavy smoke due to incomplete combustion (Lin et al., 2002; Yang et al., 2005; Chiang et al., 2006).This is one example of how Singaporean respond to nature in terms of their religion. Other than pollutants it emitted, burning joss paper in Singapore also affect the cleanliness around the vicinity. For such, bins are provided to facilitate proper burning (Durai, 2013). Such behavior is inevitable as it an issue regarding their religion, but responsible behavior like burning in respective bins is the basic for human to adhere as it is for the cleanliness of our environment.

On the topic of cleanliness in Singapore, this is something we observe in our beach.

Retrieved from
http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/celebrate-world-ocean-day-with-us-pasir-ris-site-6/

Retrieved from http://lazy-lizard-tales.blogspot.sg/2012/12/is-this-really-singapore-pasir-ris.html

The National Environment Agency (NEA) declared in 2008 that Pasir Ris beach was unsafe for swimming due to contaminated water caused by sewers leakage (Salleh, 2012). Industries are not concerned by the water pollution that was caused by their discharge. Proper filter system was not set-up which caused this tragedy. It could be due to cost-efficiency whereby they cut cost in handling their waste. However, the amount of cost needed to clean up the mess that they caused is beyond what money can do. On top of that, we human have been nonchalantly littering around these parks for convenience sake. “Only leave your footprints behind” is a common slogans seen around nature parks. The purpose is to remind users to leave the premises and return them to their original state. Although the rubbish can be cleaned up, the damages done to marine life cannot be undo. It’s tragic to see a beautiful beach in Pasir Ris perish due to the unethical acts of Singaporean. Pasir Ris beach is now open up again after much improvement work. However, litters like Styrofoam, plastic and murky water is still observed (Salleh, 2012). Look what have we done… …