SINGAPORE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Singapore should play a leadership role in dealing with the sea-level rise issue, said the director of Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) on Monday at a seminar held by the Goh Loo Club.

Director of EOS and Professor at the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University Benjamin Horton said Singapore is an important nation in Asia.

It can be made the coolest city as the research project Cooling Singapore is taking place here, Horton said, adding that there are great universities and research institutes that are able to study the problem.

He said cutting down emissions in Singapore may make no difference, but taking a leadership role in it is the key.

According to the expert, if people do not do anything to reduce greenhouse gases, the sea level will rise due to climate change. This is expected to make over 1 billion people living in low-lying areas subjected to frequent flooding by the end of this century, and 70 percent of them will be in Southeast Asia, the most vulnerable region in the world to climate change.

"Many of the cities in Southeast Asia are located in areas where land is sinking. Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, they're all sinking," said Horton, adding that Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is also sinking.

During the seminar, he told the participants from Goh Loo Club members and their guests from academia, business and other areas, to change the way people live.

Horton said climate change, which has tremendous impacts, is still a choice but not a done deal. He said people have to stop exploiting the earth to maximize profits, and that people have to understand the true value of the planet, understand the true value of the natural world.

The Goh Loo Club, founded in 1905, got its name from a poem by an ancient Chinese poet Tao Yuanming. In Hokkien, Goh Loo means "my humble hut." Enditem

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