Global warming in Malaysia? You're kidding.

Some readers commented that I hardly touch on local topics on global warming. I agree and I too wish that our local media finds the topic worthy enough to report.

Let me ask a question. Being in a hot country, does anyone really notice if its a couple of degrees hotter or cooler today from yesterday? I doubt so. We're holed up in airconditioned offices, complexes and homes most of the time to notice anyway. We blame the warming of our highlands like Genting and Frasier's hill on rampant development of hillslopes rather than the ravages of invisible greenhouse gases. I guess if we can't see it, the problem doesn't exist

Its not that we don't care about the environment. Sure we make noise about polluted rivers, indiscriminate logging, land-clearing and toxic waste dumps but for different reasons. The truth is that we hate foul smells, soil erosion, losing nice greenery from land clearing and having our underground water poisoned.

These are serious issues no doubt but does anyone really pay any attention to the massive amounts of carbon we release and how it stands to affect our children's lives in the future? Like I said, for most people, if you can't see it, it doesn't exist.

I suppose its normal for people not to care about something until they lose it. I've no doubt we will one day see unusually ferocious storms that flatten entire kampungs, rising food prices due to more failed crops, higher disease rates, knee-high water in Georgetwon Penang and Port Klang, and generally some kind of humanitarian disaster that seem to have no visible cause.

The trouble with that scenario is that by the time it happens, it is already too late.

Sometimes our blessing is also our curse. Because the drastic effects of global warming is less visible in the tropics, we worry less about the weather. But its also a curse in that we've desensitized ourselves to a growing problem that could kill us. We are like frogs being slowly boiled alive.

Because our local climate and weather can be clobbered by carbon emissions from as far away as China and Russia as theirs are to us, it is naive to think that we could solve the problem by ourselves. A global problem needs a global solution. That means everybody working together, which is why we have worldwide commissions like Kyoto and the IPCC.

Its not just supposed to be a talk shop. Its supposed to be a do shop where governments collectively hammer out their plans for global change, from educating their citizens to turn out the lights when not in use to strict legislation of industrial carbon emissions within their countries. And these actions are supposed to become national policy, filtered down to local city levels complete with incentive and enforcement.

But I've long woken from that dream. China and India does recognize the problem but prefer to take the cautious approach (i.e. do little or nothing) because it may hurt their economy. The government of the US, the world's no. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases, doesn't recognize the problem, also because it may hurt their economy. The decision of these 3 giants plus the European Union will in my opinion determine the fate of man and whether he will still exist a century from now.

This is why many of my blog entries have so far dwelt on their actions and opinions.

So does it matter if we Malaysians care about global warming or not? Personally I don't think it'll make a difference one way or another because the problem has grown way too big for any single community to handle. The only thing we can do now is soften the impact by practicing energy-saving consumption habits and I've outlined several already.

In the bigger scheme of things I think the greatest contribution we or any country can make today is to be a such a great leader in the active reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that it inspires other countries to do the same. Will we ever become that torch bearer? Your guess is as good as mine.

Al Gore's dream come true

Things are not going too well for GW Bush. That's George W Bush, not Global Warming Bush.

On Monday the apex court of the US, the Supreme Court, ruled that "greenhouse gases are a pollutant and ordered federal environmental officials to re-examine their refusal to limit emissions of the gases from cars and trucks."

What this means is that it compels the EPA - the US Environmental Protection Agency - to determine if greenhouse gases is harmful humans (something it has tap-danced away from due to pressure from Washington) and if so, to start regulating its emissions or explain to the court why it will not.

Currently any program to limit emissions in the US are done voluntarily by individuals, private organizatons or local governments but not the Federal government.

This is likely to force doubters of global warming in Washington to go into unpleasant territory where a face-off with their campaign financiers - those with large business interests - will likely occur.

Al Gore is no doubt a happy man now that one obstacle is down.

Read the news article here.

Burn more wood, emit less Co2

Going back to the good old days. That's the British plan to avoid consuming more heating oil.

The plan is for the government to provide "2 million tonnes a year more wood available for fuel by 2020 through better forest management and support." If you've been to the UK you'll notice that most British homes are individually warmed up by coal, gas or oil.

On the question whether burning wood is more environmentally friendly than burning oil, apparently the answer is yes, to the tune of avoiding 400,000 tons of carbon compared to burning the equivalent in fossil fuel.

And how to deal with the remaining carbon that's released anyway? The British Forestry Commission will plant more trees to absorb some according to the report, suggesting that this is a program aimed at reducing carbon emissions, not eliminate it.

It does leave me wondering whether balancing carbon emissions is a factor in the sustainable logging programs in Malaysia or whether it is purely in support of an economic activity.

Read the complete report here.

Image source: here.

The EU Ecolabel

As some major Asian economies settle comfortably in their polluted air and water and argue why their industries cannot be so eco-friendly, Europe has pulled ahead with initiative after initiative.

Few in Malaysia would have heard of the EU Eco-label, the flower logo above that is affixed to products that have been verified by independent bodies as complying with strict ecological and performance criteria.

Their website lists 11 product categories under this system - Bedding, Gardening, Electronic equipment, Footwear, Household Appliances, Textiles, DIY, Cleaning, Paper, Services and Lubricants.

For example, the compliance requirements for bedding manufacturers look like this:


This is not just a commercial branding stunt but a carefully administered plan by the European Eco-labelling Board (EUEB) and receives the support of the European Commission, all Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA).

According to their website, the Eco-labelling Board includes representatives such as industry, environment protection groups and consumer organisations.

Read their FAQ here about the whats and whys of the EU eco-label. The EUROPA website also has a good backgrounder on this.

My question is with Asia's notoriously booming population, will their governments have the will to adopt anything like this soon? How about anytime this century?

Formula One: Green quotes

...any research to improve that racing engine would have to be directly relevant to research to improve fuel efficiency in road cars... actually contribute something to society rather than yearly sterile research for another 200-300rpm from a fixed-capacity engine.

FIA President Max Mosley on the motor sport's brand new focus on fuel economy


The entire fuel bill and the carbon burn for the entire formula one world championship season is less than one 747 taking off for one flight.

Steve Slater
Formula One commentator


Jenson Button's Earth Car (the green Honda) will emit 50 tonnes of carbon this formula one season, five times higher than the average Briton produces in 12 months.

Guardian sport

Although the messages may be a little confusing for now, something green is brewing in F1. Great news indeed for conservation.

Autobahn putting on the brakes?

Will the Autboahn, Germany's famous no-speed-limit highway, finally give up its fame by imposing a 120kmh speed limit?

That's what the German Federal Environment Agency is mulling. The reason? To help Germany meet its promise to cut Co2 emissions.

A CNN spot last night did an interesting test to see what effect slowing down would have on feul burn. They took a BMW 5-series to the speedway, sped it past 240kmh and then reduced the speed down to half. The feul consumption was then compared. True enough, at 120 kmh consumption was cut down to half.

But Germany's speed demons were not amused though, some even angry.

Read the full news here.

World public opinion on global warming

WorldPublicOpinion.org recently conducted a poll to split hairs over what people thought about global warming.

The poll was conducted in 17 countries—China, India, USA, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, Poland, Iran, Mexico, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Israel and Armenia. These represent more than 55 percent of the world population.


The results were not unexpected. About 12-13% of people in the US and China think global warming is not an important threat compared to only 4-5% of South Koreans and Australians who felt the same way. Surprisingly 70% of Mexicans believe the problem is critical compared to the USA's 46%.

On the need to take action, Indians were the least supportive with 24% feeling that unless we are sure that global warming is really a problem, we should not do anything that would cost money. On the other hand, Australians seems the most concerned with 69% saying something should be done now even if the costs are significant.

The study does affirm that although there are dissenters, an overwhelming majority in the countries polled believe global warming is a problem that needs to be addressed. But the data also shows that the protection of economic interests may prove to be a wet blanket with developing countries like the Philippines (49%), Thailand (41%), Poland (39%), Ukraine (37%) and India (30%) leading the way on "going slow".

Graphic source: here.
Read the detailed srticle here.