Category: Environment

Categories
Activism Environment

[587] Of Impianku.org

Yesterday, I went to meet several people, mostly people behind ReCom.org. One of them was Nick Choo, one that dreamt up Impianku.org at Malaysia Forum 2. During the meet up, he kept bugging me and everyone else to submit something to Impianku.org. And I did later.

I dream for world peace!

And there I go – possibly a material for Miss World competition. If only I were one of the fairer sex.

Like many Malaysians, and Miss World candidates for that matter, I do have my version of the future. I do hold a paper cup in hope that someday, some kind of leisurely liquid (will fall) from the blue sky above. That liquid is something that will somehow make Malaysians go crazy and see other beings around them differently, more respectful of Gaia.

I wish we as Malaysians see the jungle not as another resource to exploit, see not the air to be taken for granted for free, look not the land for just another place for some ill-designed buildings or another golf course.

We cannot act as if what we do recklessly upon mother earth will not affect us adversely. We must see the environment around us as part of an ecosystem – a system that you and I, they and us are part of. If you ask why, I’d say because we, humans are part of an ecosystem called Earth.

It is harrowing to see our parks are being replaced by hard cold concrete structures, our jungles razed for timbers, our waters polluted in the name of progress. Slowly, in the named of progress, we are killing the Earth subsequently, ourselves.

We can move forward without sacrificing everything that is green or blue. We do not need to industrialize ourselves like others have done. We are living in a different age where almost everything is possible. Hybrid vehicles are there to reduce emissions while solar and wind powers are there to satisfy our need for energy. All we need right now is a proper mindset – a perception that our lifestyle is unsustainable for our system.

There is an old Cree proverb – “Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we can’t eat money”.

Yes. I dream for a green Malaysia. And for world peace too. Arrr!

And Impianku.org is featured in Malaysian newspaper The Star today; the article written by minishorts.

I hope Nick is happy now.

Categories
Environment Politics & government

[584] Of why an agreeable Iraqi Constitution is a green issue

Suddenly, I’m seeing the current negotiation for the new Iraqi Constitution with a certain shade of green.

The United Nations had planned to carry out a conference to rehabilitate of what was once the largest marshland in the world – the Tigris-Eupharates marshes – in Tokyo this week. The conference was expected to be attended by those that are interested in sponsoring the noble effort to care the land of the two rivers. Japan in particular has pledged $11 million for the rehabilitation project. Currently however, according to Associated Press, due to the current situation regarding the Iraqi Constitution, the United Nations has decided to postpone the meeting.

Iraqi politicians haven’t made much progress towards a charter that is agreeable to all sides. On the floor right now in Baghdad, three fractions – the Shiites, the Kurds and the Sunnis – are contending on three major issues – Islam, oil revenue and governance. The US has relented on Islam’s influence on a new constitution. I’m not quite happy with that but the Iraqis deserve to decide their fate for themselves but American’s compromise on Islam has allowed the negotiation to move forwards.

The deadline for negotiation was first set on August 15 but the Iraqis have agreed to give themselves a 7-day extension after failing to show up at their own date. Hence, the next deadline was to be on the 22nd but again, negotiation failed and the Iraqi Parliament gave the negotiators three more days to discuss the charter. The new deadline is looming and major disagreements still exist. With three fractions on three issues, many suspect that the Iraqi politicians will again fail to beat the deadline.

The NYT has said that the imposition of deadline on this issue is unhealthy. Part of me is starting to agree with them.

The difficulty of the issue at hand has led some to speculate the eventuality of civil war. Nobody wants a civil war but already there are sect clashes in Iraq, however minor it might be. And if civil war is an inescapable scenario, effort to restore the marshes will come to a halt.

The restoration project has been going slowly but steadily. Once covered nearly 20,000 sq km, Saddam Hussein audaciously reduced the marshes to less than 10% of the original size. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the United Nations Environmental Protection and others have restored up to 40% of the area. With Japan’s aid, it is possible to run the project at a sustainable pace. Yet, all this ultimately depends on the development of the Iraqi Constitution.

At the same time, a civil war will putthe constitution talk to a stop indefinately. Therefore, subsequently, civil war is the last thing that all self-declared greens, and in fact the world, need in Iraq.

The rehabilitation effort must not come to a standstill. It must be carried out until the Garden of Eden on Earth is fully restored to its former glory. For this very reason, all greens should support any effort that might produce a constitution acceptable to all three Iraqi sides.

Categories
Environment Photography

[581] Of Kuala Lumpur is pedestrian-unfriendly

I haven’t explored as much as I would want to yet despite already being in the city for nearly two months now. I’m excited to rediscover the city all over again. Unfortunately, there are some whispers in the wind, telling me that Kuala Lumpur hates pedestrians with a capital h.

Generalizing is bad and I might be generalizing. Yet, in the several times that I had taken a walk in the city, I found that busy intersections, like the one nearest to the Indonesian embassy on Jalan Tun Razak, have no crosswalk light for pedestrians at all. Even the paint that mark the crosswalk on the street has somewhat faded. Worse, at some junctions, there is no crosswalk at all. Motorcycles and other vehicles that stop on existing ones instead of behind it don’t make the situation any better.

On the same stretch of road, only closer to the national library, there are crosswalk lights and the crossings are clearly marked. However, most of them don’t work or simply broken. And you don’t have to talk about ergonomic design. I have this one picture to demonstrate that common sense is not so common:

Why does the button face the fence instead of its possible users is beyond me. The button up close and personal:

And this is how people adhere to traffic rule. Observe the crosswalk, the position of the car and the position of the motorcycle on the far right:

And do you see the light for the crosswalk?

It doesn’t work. I waited for nearly 15 minutes, which is enough for the traffic system there to complete maybe two or even three cycles, but it never turned green. And I swear I did press the button several times. Note too that the button that I need to request for a crossing is the one button that faces the fence.

And the person on the other side of the road simply ignored the light when he found out that it doesn’t work.

Beautiful, isn’t it? A nonsensically placed button for a nonworkable crosswalk light is definitely an invention worthy of mention millennia to come. Who could have thought of it, I ask you?

As if it is not enough our rivers look like sewers:

Yes, that is actually a river.

Bah! I’m mad. And rawr! I want to be a cat.

Here pussy, pussy, pussy…

Categories
Environment

[578] Of Guthrie, Malaysia, Indonesia and haze

Have any of you read the New Straits Times yesterday? And did you flip into a section dedicated to Indonesian national day?

Well, if you haven’t, there is a page sponsored by a Malaysian company. I’ve scanned it and it’s here for your consumption. The page doesn’t entirely fit into my scanner so I splitted it into two halves.

The first part:

What’s you first impression of the picture above? To me, it’s innocent and truly celebrate our neighbor achievement. Semangat kejiranan. Maybe even ASEAN spirit. But, wait till you see the second part and find out who actually sponsored the page:

What’s the matter Guthrie? Is your guilt hunting you?

The sky is no doubt much clearer after several days of heavy rain here in Kuala Lumpur. However, the current development is kind of hazy. Indonesia has pinpointed a couple of Malaysian companies as the culprits behind the open burning in Sumatra. Those companies on the other hand have denied such allegation. The best thing is, the Malaysian government believes these firms.

Hmm. I wonder who is lying?

Categories
Environment Science & technology

[574] Of global dimming and haze

I poked my nose in lowyat.net a few hours ago. To be exact, being the political animal that I am, I browsed their real world issues section. Interesting stuff is being discussed over there, especially about religion. Unfortunately, the discussion is massive and I simply lack the will to read all of it. A few skips and hops later, I ran across a topic on global dimming.

I’ve read about that phenomenon before in the papers and at realclimate.org but never quite understood it. So, I had put it at the back of mind so that I may check it out sometimes later for better comprehension. I never did that until I saw the posting at lowyat.net. So, I did a little online research on it. Soon, I started to wonder, is there a relationship between and the ?

Hmm?

Global dimming got the attention it deserved after the September 11 attack. Almost all aircrafts were grounded for a few days and the sky was free from steel flies for the first time in decades. It was during this time that scientists observed a minor increase in daily temperature variation.

Now, after being four years in Michigan, I do think Kuala Lumpur is extremely hot. But, after I crashed into DAP’s little sedated protest that were full of police officers, I got engaged into a conversation with a stranger.

Like all people, when there is nothing to talk about, they talk about the weather. And goddamn, we did exactly that. He said that that day, Kuala Lumpur was less hot than usual. I didn’t agree with his statement but already dazed with the haze along with the fact that I didn’t know him, I would rather be agreeable rather than starting an awkward moment by second guessing him.

Right now however, I think he was right. Yet, by eyeballing the data, it doesn’t seem like it.

I visited Weather Underground and went straight for Kuala Lumpur’s reading for August for every year beginning at 1998 and ending at 2005. If you do want to eyeball the data or even conduct a complete analysis, the data is at 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

If you did a complete analysis, do give me a howler. What you should be looking for is a decrease in temperature variation to link dimming to the haze (the idea is, the haze blocks the sunlight and hence, reduces the average temperature during the day and increases the average temperature during the night).

For warming, it’s a general rise in temperature, naturally but this should be a secondary objective.

I can’t see any change in variation or even a rise in temperature though the rain does give me a problem. I simply can’t observe the real effect by having the ceteris paribus rule being violated. I suppose I could do a difference-in-difference analysis but I’m far too lazy for real econometrics at the moment.

I have however sent an email about a possible link between the haze and global dimming. I extremely look forward for a reply from them.

For an introduction to global dimming, Wikipedia is an excellent choice.