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It takes only 181 days for the average Canadian to produce as much greenhouse gases as the average Singaporean will produce over the course of the entire year.
Ottawa (30 June 2010) - June 30 marks the Climate Change Impacts in Singapore Day on Canada's Climate Change Calendar.
This project of the Climate Action Network-Canada is an online calendar noting the date when the average Canadian citizen will have produced as much greenhouse gases (GHGs) as a citizen from another country during the entire year.
Unfortunately, it takes only 181 days for the average Canadian to produce the same volume of greenhouse gases as the average Singaporean over the course an entire year.
So far this year the average Canadian has exceeded the citizens of 153 other countries in the production of annual GHG emissions.
Singapore’s National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) says Singapore is affected by climate change "as a relatively low-lying, densely populated island in the tropics." The country has about 4.7 million people within a coastline of 193 kilometres and a relatively large portion of the island is less than 15 metres above sea level. As a result, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to the impact of sea level rise.
Given these circumstances, “the potential impacts of climate change on Singapore include increased flooding, coastal land loss, water resource scarcity, public health impact from resurgence of diseases, heat stress, increased energy demand and impacts on biodiversity,” the NCCS says.
While these impacts cannot entirely be blamed on climate change, all will certainly be aggravated by climate change.
To check out the calendar and the climate change strategies for various countries, go to:
http://www.climatecalendar.ca/
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The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE