Getting muddy for nature’s sake

ABOUT 40 students from SMK Teloi Kanan in Kedah made their August school holidays worthwhile by doing their bit for the environment. Together with their headmistress, Nooriah Bahari, they planted more than 1,000 mangrove seedlings and 500 seeds at Telok Rubiah in Kuala Gula. The activity was organised by Global Environment Centre (GEC), the school…

Training the Trainers

Looking smart in white T-shirts and blue caps, 52 teachers were up early at Berapit, Bukit Mertajam. Carrying files, buckets, test kits and nets, they were eager to start their day. The teachers, participants of a River Ranger Trainers Training Workshop, were on a field assignment to begin river mapping near a river source at…

For peat’s sake.

A ready-made solution to reverse the adverse effects of climate change can be found in peat forests. AN immediate and relatively cheap way of mitigating climate change may lie in this region, in its deforested, drained and charred peat swamps. A new report revealed that degraded tropical peatlands is responsible for 8% of the current…

Message lost on participants.

KUALA LUMPUR: It was not a pretty sight on the grounds of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) after the Green Fest celebration was over. In fact, it was appalling. The event was meant to create awareness about environmental conservation but some visitors could not care less. Employees of Global Environment Centre, a non-governmental organisation,…

Not so green

CARS running on palm biodiesel may emit less carbon but once the overall production of the biofuel is scrutinised, its usage actually inflicts more damage on the global climate. This is because large tracts of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s top two growers of the crop, sit on peat forests. “Peatlands…

Food-fuel feud

WITH vegetable oils finding a new use as car fuel, we may end up facing a food shortage or paying more for food. Soaring demand for corn, sugar cane, rapeseed and palm oil to make biofuels has driven up prices of these crops, and that of food made from them. In January, Mexicans took to…

Doubts over biofuel

Turning food to fuel may not be the answer to the world’s energy woes and global warming, after all. THE appeal of palm oil biodiesel appears to have lost its lustre. Soaring crude palm oil prices have eaten into profitability of the business, while Europe is slowly losing interest in palm diesel amidst fears that…

Lesson on Water Conservation

This was revealed to school children at a workshop on Water Conservation conducted by the Global Environment Centre (GEC) and the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) in SMK (P) Sri Aman in Petaling Jaya recently in conjunction with the National Water Conservation Campaign. Speaking to the students on the importance…