Tag: haze

Categories
Environment Science & technology

[1301] Of bees, pollination and haze

One of the less emphasized environmental crises within the public sphere is the decline of bee population. The United States for some unknown reason is seeing a fall in bee population. The same story is being played out in Europe and after attending a public talk at the Zoo Negara last week, I found out that the same trend is applicable in Malaysia. The annual haze might contribute to the decline in a big way. Bees are natural pollinators and thus, they are precious to the agricultural industry. Any significant drop of population is expected to adversely affect production.

During the talk, a professor from a local public university showed how honey is traditionally harvested in Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. It is quite amazing how the simple act of smoking a bee hive will chase the bees away and thus, making honey harvesting a less painful act. The professor continued to say that smoke disrupts communication between bees and disorients the insects.

If simple smoking could do that, imagine what weeks-long haze would do to the whole bee population found in Malaysia and other places that typical suffer from the haze originating from Indonesia annually?

The gravity of the matter is even more pronounced considering the fact the tropical trees only bloom once every 10 to 15 years. As mentioned earlier, bees play a large role in spreading pollens naturally. With haze happening on almost yearly basis, it is possible that the bees might fail to aid a pollination process and thus, disrupting a reproduction cycle.

The haze that several Southeast Asian countries experience almost every year has been going on for about a decade now. It is quite possible that a pollination process had occurred during that period.

If there is any disruption, the effect would not be visible immediately. There is a lag in the relevant causal relationship and therefore, we might need to wait a whole cycle to complete before we could observe how the haze is affecting reproduction process of floras.

If we are unlucky, it might be too late before we could do anything to rectify the matter.

Categories
ASEAN Environment

[1145] Of haze in Thailand; bad news for Malaysia

Is there hope for us not to go though the hazy experience we had gone through in the previous years?

I have strong feeling that the answer is unfortunately no. Even if Indonesia rectified the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, chances are, it would change nothing.

For last few weeks have seen northern Thailand as well as Myanmar and Laos engulfed in haze with level comparable to what had occurred in Southeast Asia last year. It is so bad that emergency has been declared:

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Reuters) — Thick smoke from forest fires and slash-and-burn farming has spread over northern Thailand in the worst haze in 14 years, disrupting airline flights and irritating eyes and lungs, officials said on Monday.

The smoke from fires in Thailand and neighboring Laos and Myanmar slashed visibility in scores of towns and villages, including the major tourism hub of Chiang Mai. [Thailand haze ‘worst in 14 years’. Reuters via CNN. March 14 2007]

Meanwhile, more than two thousand kilometers south:

The Republic experienced a slightly hazy start to the week, with the overall PSI just falling out of the “good” range.

At 7pm yesterday, the PSI reading went into the “moderate” range for a reading of 52 — the highest level in March. [Singapore not spared from Thailand’s worst haze in 14 years. Today via Channel News Asia. March 20 2007]

I checked the Air Pollution Index at the Malaysian Department of the Environment and found out that for March, the readings for Kuala Lumpur having been hovering between 40 and 60. It seems, a typical day unaffected by haze would read in between 20 and 40.

The haze in Thailand is caused by open burning. Farmers in Myanmar look to clear out their land through the easiest method and that method is open burning; same story, different location.

Some however have blamed it on El Niño:

The average dust particles smaller than 10 microns around Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second-biggest city, are now around 240 micrograms per cubic meter of air, double the 120 micrograms standard, Kasem said.

He blamed the drought on the El Nino weather phenomenon hitting Thailand and neighboring Myanmar and Laos. [Thailand May Declare Emergency in Haze-Hit Northern Provinces. Bloomberg. March 13 2007]

Talking about El Niño, it seems that its effects on Malaysia has been rather mild. Instead of having a hot dry season, it is typical for rain to fall on almost daily basis. Sometimes, it rains so heavily that it floods.

Now, here is the killer: Thailand, Myanmar and Laos are parties to the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. If Thailand, Myanmar and Laos are parties to the agreement and the parties are doing nothing to fight the haze, I starting to doubt having Indonesia as a party would improve the likelihood of Malaysia seeing a haze-free 2007; I am rethinking the need to encourage Indonesia to ratify the agreement as well.

Categories
Environment

[1028] Of 2006 top Malaysian environmental issues

With a little over 24 hours before 2006 comes to a close, let us revisit all the green issues mentioned in two other entries — entry [775] and [879]:

  1. Smelly tap water in the Klang Valley in February. Not just smelly, it smelled like shit. The smell was caused by ammonia released from several improperly managed landfills. The landfills later were shut down, at least, according to reports. See [756].
  2. The tabling of the Water Services Industry Bill in April. Proposed death penalty to polluters. See [765].
  3. With the shut down of landfills, a related problem ensued: shortage of landfills in April too. See [775].
  4. Big flood in the northern states early in the year. See [775].
  5. Flash flood in Shah Alam. Local residents were positively angry. See [775].
  6. Deforestation in various states. TV3 played an active role in informing the public. See [709] and [720].
  7. The Malaysian Nature Society’s Save Belum-Temengor campaign. See [885]
  8. The drive towards biofuel. See [775].
  9. Proposed mega palm oil estate by Indonesia on Borneo. It affects Malaysia because, well, it would be on the border. See [775].
  10. Proposed nuclear energy for Malaysia. See [775].
  11. Bird flu. See [775].
  12. Landslide at Genting Highlands. See [775].
  13. Damage to Sipadan coral reef in May. The accident forced the Sabah state government to halt construction of a huge facility at Sipadan after coming under attack from the public. See [791].
  14. Metal smelter in Bakun. See [879].
  15. Cancellation of Broga incinerator. See [879].
  16. Haze. And yeah, I told you so. See [879].
  17. In practical terms, the extinction of leatherback turtle in Malaysia. See [855].
  18. Sustainable forestry program. See [853].
  19. Congestion tax in Kuala Lumpur in August. It came back in December after the Kuala Lumpur mayor made a comment on it. This is a progressive policy but the public transportation system must be improved first. See [854].
  20. Growing rhinoceros population in Borneo. See [879].

That is a compilation of issues that started between January and some time in September 2006, inclusively. But of course, a year does not end in September and so, the complication continues.

  1. El Niño is officially back in September. See [883] and [886].
  2. The hunt for a killer crocodile in October. The act of revenge turn for the worse and became a merciless culling of crocodiles. The effort was criticized by greens and the culling immediately stopped in October. See [896].
  3. Temporary ban lift on commercial usage of paraquat. Something smell fishy. See [897].
  4. Legalization of turtle eggs collection by Terengganu state government in October. See [912].
  5. 300MV coal power plant in Sabah, as reported in November. See [975].
  6. New Orleans of Malaysia. See [1018].
  7. And perhaps, finally, after all these years, climate change. See [1017].

Will 2007 be a better year? Will the haze return?

Stay alive and find out next year.