Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Activism Environment

[1004] Of An Inconvenient Truth at MNS HQ

In conjuction of the Great Green Promotion at the Malaysian Nature Society HQ, the society is screening “An Inconvenient Truth” to the public for free this Sunday, December 17.

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary on climate change, narrated by the person that used to be “the next President of the United States”, Al Gore. I’ve blogged about the documentary back in May 2006.

While I might be most interested in the documentary, there are other programs lined up for the public:

Schedule for Talks and Documentaries

11.00am
Tiger conservation by Loretta Ann Soosayraj

12.00pm
Paradise Bus, a film on logging in Papua New Guinea by Chi Too, a Malaysian film maker

1.00pm
Save our Sharks by Kwang with clips from WildAid documentaries

2.30pm
An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary on Global Warming based on Al Gore’s book

3.30pm
Conserve Peat Swamp Forest, a documentary by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, FRIM, Sarawak Forests Dept, Sabah Forestry Dept and Pahang Forestry Dept.

What is the Great Green Promotion, you might ask? Well, ask no further:

Fair Use. By Malaysian Nature Society.

For more information, visit home of the Great Green Promotion on the internet.

Come! Come!

And yes. I’m a member of the Malaysian Nature Society. Pardon me if I’m trying to promote my own society.

Categories
Environment

[1003] Of extinction of Chinese River Dolphin

A large mammal species, the Chinese River Dolphin has been presumed extincted after a recent international expedition failed to find one in the Yangtze River:

Wuhan, 13 December 2006 — The Baiji Yangtze Dolphin is with all probability extinct. On Wednesday, in the city of Wuhan in central China, a search expedition, under the direction of the Institute for Hydrobiology Wuhan and the Swiss-based baiji.org Foundation, drew to a finish without any results. During the six-week expedition scientists from six nations desperately searched the Yangtze in vain.

The Yangtze is also the location of the Three Gorges Dam.

According to the National Geographic Society, this is the first extinction of large mammal in recent decades:

If Pfluger’s team is correct, the baiji will be the first large aquatic mammal to have gone extinct since hunting and overfishing killed off the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s.

This is truly a sad week.

We, Malaysians have our own river dolphin, the Fraser’s Dolphin, also known as the Sarawak Dolphin. Let not push them to extinction as the Chinese had done with theirs.

Categories
Politics & government

[1002] Of hold your horses Democrats

Remember the Democratic victory in the US Congress?

The balance might tip against the Democrats:

Johnson was taken by ambulance to George Washington University Hospital in Washington yesterday afternoon after becoming disoriented during a conference call with reporters.

Control of the new U.S. Senate may depend on Johnson’s health after Democrats won a 51-49 majority in the Nov. 7 midterm elections. If Johnson’s seat were to become vacant, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, a Republican, may appoint a Republican replacement.

All the best, senator.

Categories
Economics Environment

[1001] Of a better and humane alternative to crows culling

Several of weeks ago, I had a meeting with a few people — Shin and Khalid Jaafar were two of them — at Bangsar. While committing myself to an impossible search for a parking space there, I saw a Kuala Lumpur city hall squad shooting down crows. There were countless of crows hovering the area at that time, producing annoying noise. It’s easy to hate the crows for that. While I agree that the noise is a nuisance, I completely disagree with the scourge. The city hall was, and very likely, is, attending to the symptoms, not the root cause. Therefore, there’s a better way to deal with the crows, as a friend advised me during the meeting.

First of all, it’s important to realize that crows in urban areas are scavengers. Despite the negative connotation the noun scavengers brings, scavengers, crows included, play important role in our ecosystem. Scavengers are practically cleaners, breaking down our food leftovers. As scavengers, crows are attracted to the leftover, essentially waste. Our environment as a whole would be a very bad place to live in without scavengers.

It’s highly likely that the reason why the flock of crows hover Bangsar, or any area of that matter, is the presence of waste. Hence, if city hall is really interested in solving the problem, city hall should clean up the waste produced by Bangsar, which is an affluent area. Or better yet, if the population and visitors of Bangsar wants to solve the problem, they will need to clean up.

The culling is barbaric, regardless whether it happened in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. This is on top of the fact that the culling is ineffective and wasteful exercise, by the very fact that the act of culling attacks the symptom, not the root cause.

Categories
Liberty This blog

[1000] Of I have gained this by philosophy

Celebrating the 1,000th post. Celebrating five years of the __earthinc.

I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

— Aristotle (384 BCE — March 7, 322 BCE)

The ability to differentiate right and wrong by appeal to the mind; appeal to rationalism; that is the highest of all morals.