Crucial Effects of Global Warming May Not Be Far From Our Shores

SINKING CITIES


It was reported in 2010 that 7 cities around the world were sinking due to rising sea levels.

7 cities threatened to sink

 The unfortunate cities listed were Bangkok, New York, Houston, Shanghai,
New Orleans, Venice and Mexico City.

In September, 2013, 20 cities were in the danger category of being lost to the waves.

20 cities to sink

The latest article on November 9, 2015 titled megacities hit hard by surging sea levels;

megacities to be hard hit

Reports indicate that even a rise in temperature of 2 degrees Celcius due to global warming, large areas of Shanghai, Mumbai and New york and other coastal cities will be submerged under the waves.A spike of 2 degrees Celcius in the Earth's temperature will submerge land currently inhabited by 280 million people.An increase of 4 degrees Celcius will cover areas occupied by more than 600 million people.

Sea level rises corresponding to these 2 C or 4 C scenarios could unfold in two hundred years, but would more likely happen over many centuries, perhaps as long as 2,000 years, according to the research, published by Climate Central.

A 195 nation UN Climate Summit in Paris, from November 30 to December 11, 2015 plans to cap the rise in Earth's temperatures to 2 C above pre-industrial levels is the core goal. 

Drastically reducing the output of greenhouse gases is the most effective way to slow global warming. 

It is still serious challenging to achieve the 2 degree goal.

The UN has warned that even if emissions reduction pledges -- many of them conditioned on financial aid -- submitted by 150 nations ahead of the Paris summit are fulfilled, it would still put the world towards a temperature increment of 3 degrees Celcius, 

In the new report, the country hit hardest by sea level rise under a 4 C scenario is China.

Today,  Chinese coastal cities where some 145 million people live would eventually be lost as the ocean swamp in when  temperatures soar.

Four of the 10 most devastated megacities would be Chinese: land occupied today by 44 million people in Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Taizhou would be underwater.

India, Vietnam and Bangladesh do not fare much better. All told, Asia is home to 75 percent of the populations that today reside in zones that would no longer be classified as land in a climate-altered future.

Thirty-four million people in Japan, 25 million the United States, 20 million in the Philippines, 19 million in Egypt and 16 million in Brazil are also in future 4 C seascapes.

The sea level rise corresponding to 2 C would eventually be 4.7 metres, and for 4 C almost double that, the study found.

The projections are based on climate models taking into account the expansion of ocean water as it warms, the melting of glaciers, and the decay of both the Greenland and West Antarctic icesheets.

Normally a study of this nature would be published by a peer-reviewed journal, as was the earlier research on the US.

In this case, however, the new results should be taken into account ahead of the crucial climate summit in Paris.

AFP sent the study to four experts -- including Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, until this year Vice-President of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- for evaluation, and all of them described the work as "solid" and methodologically sound.

From the study, it was implied that the stakes at the Paris negotiations are extremely high as it could affect the global boundaries between land and sea.

We shall wait for the outcome of the UN Summit and hope the Governments of the member countries will have the political will to implement the resolutions to be agreed upon. Our continued existence on Earth may depend on it.

It is has been 5 years since I logged in to this blog. It took that long for things to move in a positive direction when it comes to recycling of household wastes. Recently the Federal Government decided that households on certain states;Pahang, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah , Perlis and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya has to separate their rubbish. Any household that failed to do so, will not have their garbage collected. By 2016, any household that do not separate their rubbish risk being fined RM1,000 per offence.

That is rather steep. I have yet to see any educational ads in the mainstream media teaching folks how this is to be done.

I have been separating my dry recyclable rubbish since my interest in saving the Earth started. At first we had a recycling centre near our housing area but it closed down about two years ago when the hypermarket it operated from changed ownership. Since then, I have practised kerbside recycling of paper, cardboard, glass bottles, metal (steel and aluminium),and plastics  without any monetary benefits. I just separate my rubbish into different bags and place them outside to be collected by the garbage collection contractors.In some countries you get rebate from your assessment for doing that.

I take care of my kitchen wastes as well. Vegetable cuttings and fruit peelings, egg shells, food remnants and tea and coffee bags are some of the things that goes into the compost bin.

You may want to continue reading this news:
Negeri to Separate Household Wastes


Another news that I found interesting....  Children are better at it.

Well that is all for a start.

Greening the Economy

The article written by the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water which appeared in the Star on Saturday November 27, 2010:  Gearing Towards a Green Malaysia is posted for future reference.


Towards a green nation and economy

AT YOUR SERVICE


By DATUK LOO TOOK GEE

Secretary-General Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry

In the pursuit of sustainable development, policymakers must find a way to strike a balance between economic efficiency and environmental protection.

THE global community is confronted with challenges related to the environment and climate change. As a result, many countries are promoting sustainable development by investing in green technology in the form of cleaner low-carbon transport and energy systems, “smart” electricity grids, energy efficiency, renewable energy as well as in green research and development.

Green technology signifies a global paradigm shift in which economic aspiration combines with resource productivity and conservation to spearhead sustainable development.

Under a Cabinet reshuffle in April 2009, the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry (Kettha) was given the mandate to promote sustainable development through the adoption of green technologies in the various economic sectors of the country.
In pushing for a low-carbon economy, the Government launched the National Green Technology Policy on July 24, 2009, which serves as the basis for all Malaysians to enjoy an improved quality of life, by ensuring that the objectives of our national development policies will continue to be balanced with environmental considerations.

The Government also hopes to create a new avenue of growth for the country from green technology, in line with the New Economic Model that was unveiled recently.

The country’s vision for a low-carbon growth trajectory will be driven by four main pillars – energy, economy, environment and society.

To strengthen the platform for our green agenda, the National Green Technology Council was established to spearhead green technology application in the country. This council is chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and supported by a steering committee and five working groups on industry, research and innovation, human capital, promotion and public awareness and transportation.

The Green Technology Policy also outlines five strategic thrusts towards implementing green technologies in the country (for details, go to http://www.kettha.gov.my/).

In the transition to a low-carbon economy, the key issue for our policymakers is how to strike a balance between economic efficiency and environmental protection as the driver for economic growth and environmental sustainability. This needs to take into consideration the importance of promoting the notion of the environment and eco-efficiency as a business opportunity, rather than a cost item.

The following are examples of the initiatives undertaken by the ministry to address the challenges of climate change and reduce our carbon footprint:

Energy efficiency

The Malaysian Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Programme represents one of the main efforts undertaken to improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. Since 2001, fiscal incentives had been introduced by the Government to promote efficient use of energy such as pioneer status, investment tax allowance, duty import exemption and sales tax exemption.
The ministry was now in the midst of finalising the Energy Efficiency Master Plan with clear goals and targets in the industrial, building and residential sectors, so as to coordinate and implement energy efficiency and conservation programmes in a systematic and holistic manner.

Renewable energy

The Government approved the Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan in April 2010. This policy is aimed at promoting long-term sustainability by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for electricity generation and at the same time stimulate a new growth industry for the country.

To encourage renewable energy generation in the country, the Government will be implementing the Feed-in Tariff Mechanism which allows electricity produced from such sources like biomass, biogas, mini-hydro and solar to be sold to power utilities at a fixed premium price and for a specific duration.

Green buildings

The Green Building Index (GBI) is a rating tool to grade environment-friendly buildings and the Government is providing fiscal incentives to buildings which are GBI-certified.Owners of GBI-certified buildings are entitled to income tax exemptions, equivalent to the additional capital expenditure, to green their building. Buyers of green buildings from developers will also be exempted from stamp duty equivalent to the additional cost incurred to green their building.

Sustainable transport

To facilitate the use of electric vehicles (EV) in the country, the Government is in the process of preparing the EV Infrastructure Roadmap, which includes a fleet test programme for electric vehicles. The implementation of this fleet test will be the benchmark in developing a strategic plan and framework as well as identification of entities that will benefit the electric vehicle industry, in areas of services and new business opportunities.

Green Technology Roadmap

Under the Green Technology Roadmap, a baseline study is currently being conducted to ascertain the overall green technology applications in six sectors, namely, energy, transport, building, water and waste management, manufacturing industries and ICT applications.

Green Technology Financing Scheme

A RM1.5bil soft loan scheme called the Green Technology Financing Scheme (GTFS) was launched by the Government early this year to encourage the participation of companies and entrepreneurs in green technology. The Government bears 2% of the interest rate charged and provides a guarantee of 60% on the financing amount, with the remaining 40% being taken by banking institutions.

Green townships in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya

The ministry, together with the Malaysian Green Technology Corporation (MGTC), is developing a green township framework, a green township rating system based on the Common Carbon Metric (CCM) and carbon footprint baseline as well as conducting a study on a 10% saving in energy and water usage in all government buildings in Putrajaya. It is hoped that the developed framework and rating system will benefit other townships in the country where they can use both the framework and rating system as a guide to develop their own green townships.

Eco-labelling

The Government is working with the Standards and Industrial Research Institute Malaysia (SIRIM) towards developing standards, certification and labelling mechanisms, including green procurement manuals and procedures, to enable the Government and private sectors to embark on green purchasing which will be internationally recognised. The Ministry is also working with the Finance Ministry in formulating a Green Procurement Policy to encourage green procurement to be implemented in government agencies.

Human capital development 

The Government is also facilitating the development of Occupational Analysis (OA) and National Competency Standards (NCS) as well as National Occupational Skills Standards (NOSS) for green collar jobs.
The objective of this initiative is to develop a hghly-skilled workforce to meet future demands in the area of green technology.
In conclusion, the transformation of Malaysia's economy to a low- carbon economy can be viewed as a strategic move to promote green technology as an engine of growth, drive innovation and create employment in the country. Green Growth is where our future lies.

WE WAIT AND SEE!

Clean and Green Motorcycles on the Roads

Malaysians are set to ride on Green motorcycles beginning next year. The director-general of the Road Transport Department, Datuk Solah Mat Hassan said the Road Transport Act 1987 was being amended to exempt the requirement for the machines to have engine numbers before they could be registered.

The  rechargeable lithium battery-powered scooter to be known as the Penan, offers the same performance of a 125cc petrol-powered motorcycle.
One manufacturer, Eclimo Sdn Bhd, said its appointed assembler Naza Bikes Sdn Bhd would only begin manufacturing once the guidelines from the Road Transport Department (JPJ) were out.
Eclimo Sdn Bhd CEO Woo Kok Boon said the Penan, could travel up to 100 to 120km at an average speed of 50km/h when fully charged. It takes about three-and-a-half hours to fully charge the battery.The battery can be recycled at the end of its life span of about 100,000km for use in other applications.
Woo said a special feature of the motorcycle was its braking system which helped to recharge the battery.

The selling point of the motor­cycle would be that the maintenance cost is 50% less compared with a petrol-powered motorcycle as electric bikes do not need engine oil, air filter and spark plugs, and of course, petrol. The Penan will be priced slightly above RM10,000.


Meanwhile, Modenas, the national motorcycle manufacturer, will also be offering a battery-powered motorcycle, currently referred to as CTRIC. It comes with five batteries to power its 1kw motor. The battery also takes 3 1/2 hours to recharge. Modenas' s electric motorcycle is ready to be launched within the next few months.

The target market would be those who usually travel within 35km to 40km.

CTRIC, would be powered by sealed lead acid gel battery and could hit a maximum speed of 110kmh. Its selling price was expected to be below RM5,000.

Electric cars would be next on the agenda!

Parliament Act to Allow Home owners to earn a side income by selling excess electricity

The government has introduced incentives for commercial owners to generate renewable energy and sell the excess to the Electrical Generation Companies, such as TNB and Sarawak Energy Board. Soon house owners who install solar panels on their homes would be able to do the same. Read on here: Home owners can now sell electricity

More Floods Pictures

The Pictures below are for record purposes only, to remind us what it was like during the Great Kedah Floods in November, 2010. Taken from a Friend's FB status update.

The Airport Looks more like a Sea Port



Along Jalan Sultanah

Sultanah Bahiyah School

Police Station, Kepala Batas

Esso Station, Jalan Sultanah

The Road at Taman Uda has become a River

Taman Uda

The Sultan's Plaground, Royal Golf Club

Zahir Mosque, State Mosque

The Plus Highway

A bungalow at Jalan Sultanah

Pictures of Floods in Alor Setar



Menteri Besar's House (Chief Minister's House not official residence)



Flood (Water) Rescue not Fire Rescue



Downtown Alor Setar



Esso Jalan Sultanah



Hindu temple



The dead are not spared either!



Pictures taken from the
STAR pictures gallery.

The unnatural flooding of Alor Setar has been blamed on the railway double tracking being constructed by MMC Gamuda. I bet millions have been lost and surely MMC Gamuda has a lot to answer to this fiasco.

Now is the time for the public listed companies (MMC and Gamuda)  to embark on a major CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme to alleviate the sufferings of the masses due to their negligence or oversight.

Alternatively, the State has get the company to reimburse all expenses paid for the rescue operations and th running of the relief centres.

Floods Hits My Hometown.

While Indonesia grapples with the wrath of Mount Merapi, Malaysians in the northern states of Kedah, Perlis and Kelantan found themselves literally in deep waters.

The Minister of Housing and Local Government who hails from my hometown of Alor Setar in Kedah (whose house also happens to be not far from mine) has blamed the  double tracking raiway project as the cause of unpredented floods in Alor Setar. Read it here:

Floods closer to Home

During my schooldays, we had small flash floods, but never of this magnitude.



My Aunt's house on 5th Nov 2010

While the flood situation has eased in Kelantan and Perlis, the people of Kedah have still to brace up. Bernama reports that the number of flood evacuees in Kedah increased to 39,512 this morning compared to 32,990 last night as more areas are affected by the flood in the state.


Although many flood victims in Padang Terap have been allowed to return home, the number of evacuees from Kubang Pasu, Kota Setar and Pendang continued to increase.

There are now 21,111 evacuees in Kubang Pasu, 15,736 in Kota Setar and 241 in Pendang. There are still 657 people at Padang Terap flood relief centre compared to 2,279 last night, and 1,767 in Pokok Sena from 1,868 last night
A National Security Council operations room spokesman said 100 evacuation centres were still open this morning.
More areas were flooded, including the compound of the state police contingent and Bernama bureau office, both at Jalan Stadium.



My Aunt's House on 5th Nov 2010



The family (consisting of my sister, brother and their families; and two aunts and their families,) have packed their bags and are ready to evacuate to Sungei Petani, which has not been hit yet. My elder sister and her family live in Sungei Petani.

A School in Jalan Sultanah, Alor Setar

Pray hard that the situation will ease soon.

Mother Earth Suffers

At first severe floods hit China. Now the authorities are worried of chemicals that has been washed down the from two chemical storage facilities, into the Songhua river in Jilin city. The Songhua River is the largest tributary of the Heilongjiang river, also known as the Amur river in Russia, on the China-Russia border. A total of 7,000 barrels from the storage facilities of two chemical plants had been washed into the river. Around 400 barrels have been recovered so far by workers at eight stations on the river. 4,000 of the barrels were empty, it was reported. The remaining 3,000 contained flammable chemicals,

Elsewhere in Jilin, 30,000 people in the town of Kouqian were said to be trapped by flood waters after a reservoir and two rivers burst its banks.
Water quality in the river was being monitored at seven stations, Xinhua news agency said.


Russian authorities were also checking the water in the Heilongjiang river (the Amur river), a report on Russian television said.

Five years ago a chemical spill in the Songhua river left the city of Harbin and its 3.8 million residents without water for five days.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is experiencing its worst floods in living memory. The South West monsoon rains have caused devastating floods as the Indus River, (travelling about 3,000km in Pakistan territory) and other major rivers burst their banks. Communications have been severed making dispatch of food aids difficult. Rescue teams in northern Pakistan are battling to reach tens of thousands of people cut off by the monsoon flooding.

While water is receding in some areas, many communities remain stranded by the region's worst flooding for 80 years.

The UN said 3m people had been affected and more than 1,400 had been killed. The government said some 27,000 people remained trapped and awaiting help.

The United Nations' World Food Programme says it has provided emergency food for 42,000 people in Pakistan by Monday and that by the end of the week it expects to have helped 250,000 people.

Continuous rain has hampered emergency services and delayed. The return of monsoon rains has grounded helicopters and raised fears of renewed flooding.


Forecasters said rain would continue in the north-west and in southern provinces of Punjab and Sindh over the coming days.

There are many areas the army admits that it has not reached at all. There are several valleys in the north-west of Pakistan where they do not know how many people have died or how much destruction there is. Time is now crucial for those people waiting for aid, who do not yet have food or clean water.

However, WFP spokeswoman Emilia Casella said about 1.8 million needed food aid.

The Pakistani military says it has committed 30,000 troops and dozens of helicopters to the relief effort, but winching individuals to safety is a slow process.

Aid agencies say the risk of water-borne diseases especially cholera, spreading will remain high until the flood waters fully recede.
While flood waters ravage China and Pakistan, the  opposite happens to Russia. A record heat wave across Central Russia has started wildfires that have destroyed entire villages.

Moscow is mobilising more forces to fight hundreds of wildfires raging across a vast area of Central Russia. At least 40 people have died in fires in the past week, and seven regions are under a state of emergency.

Officials say 13 warehouses in a naval aviation storage area were destroyed in the blaze near Kolomna, outside Moscow; which began on Thursday and lasted into Friday,  with the loss of an unknown quantity of military hardware. According to Russian news agency Interfax, the Kolomna depot services aircraft from all of Russian navy's fleets.

Elsewhere, extra firefighters went to protect a major nuclear facility at Sarov, in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Many children are also being evacuated from summer camps threatened by fires.

About a fifth of Russia's grain crop has been destroyed and there was another big rise in the price of wheat on international markets on Monday.
As of July 30, some 25 million acres (about 10 million hectares) of grain had been lost, an area roughly the size of Kentucky - and growing. Then last week, fires that had been ignored for days by local officials began spreading out of control. By Aug. 2, they had scorched more than 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) and destroyed 1,500 homes in more than a dozen regions, some of which declared a state of emergency.


The record heatwave is expected to last for the next few days. Temperatures in the Moscow area are expected to hit about 38C (100F) this week.

Besides causing poor visibility, the fires pose a health risk for those with respiratory problems.
While the States grappled with the BP oil spill fiasco, news broke out of an earthquake in Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Mankind is still unrepentant of all the signs and will continue to plunder on,  till the Earth could not take it anymore.

The Corals off Borneo are not Spared Either

Today's news reported that marine experts in the Universiti Malaysia Sabah are also worried that the corals off Sabah are also suffering the same fate as corals of West Malaysia' s coast. 

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) scientists have discovered widespread coral bleaching in Sepanggar Bay, off Sabah waters.

UMS Director of Borneo Marine Research Institute Prof Dr Saleem Mustafa said coral bleaching needs serious attention as it affects marine biodiversity and coral reef fisheries in the state's waters. Prof Saleem said coral bleaching was a stress response associated with ecosystem disturbances.


According to UMS experts, in the context of Sabah, the corals have been living close to their maximum water temperature tolerance, and additional warming of water certainly has a debilitating effect on their health and survival.
It was explained that coral bleaching happens when corals lose the symbiotic micro algae that lives on their surface (zooxanthellae  or the plant plankton, ) due to unfavorable environmental conditions. Bleaching stress has affected not merely the stony corals but also some soft corals, sea anemone and other marine invertebrates which have symbiotic relationship with the zooxanthellae.

Prof Saleem said that while the degree of bleaching in Sabah would require more studies to quantify, it seemed to have started in recent months based on the routine observations that have been on-going during regular dives in the area by UMS marine scientists.

Prof Saleem said the immediate causes could be unusual variations in temperature, dilution and sedimentation.

According to him, the dry spell and warmer conditions experienced in Sabah earlier this year (January-March) could have weakened the corals and dealt a blow to their resistance to environmental stress.

"A declining trend in the sea surface temperature anomaly that started in the second half of March 2010 from 1.5oC and transitioned to below 0.5oC over a vast part of the equatorial Pacific Ocean paved the way for rains that have been heavy at times in the recent weeks, leading to a large volume of run-off into coastal areas of Sepanggar Bay," he said.

Sedimentation was also another serious problem that needed immediate attention. Sediment run-off from the land-based activities and upwelling during the heavy rains have exacerbated the turbidity of the seawaters and covered the corals. Under this condition, corals already weakened by high temperature could not withstand increasing scale of sedimentation and dilution.

He said the possibility of unusual regional patterns emerging from global climatic change as factors responsible for coral bleaching cannot be ruled out.  The equatorial location of Sabah and the region around it makes it an active seat of hydrodynamics driven by changes in atmospheric conditions and ocean circulation. 

However, Prof Saleem said: "We should be prepared to face and examine oceanic patterns unfamiliar to us due to complications caused by climate change".

He said the UMS scientists were of the view that the climate change was worsening the serious problems facing the marine ecosystem.

"With acidification of ocean, altered hydrodynamic events and warming of the sea, the marine life is heading towards more dramatic consequences.

"At local level, we should reduce stress on the coastal marine ecosystem and build resilience in corals, and expedite the development of marine protected areas.This could be done by controlling sediment inputs to the marine environment and protect and restore the connectivity of corals with other associated marine critical habitats like mangroves and sea weeds," he said.


All global level, drastic reduction in carbon emission is the key factor in our fight against the effects of climate change.

Prof Saleem recommended that a sound and sustainable conservation policy has to be formulated as the economic costs of degradation or loss of marine habitats were enormous.
On another note, restricting access to Sipadan,  a world-renowned diving spot off Sabah, has increased the fish population following the Government's move to restrict the number of tourists and prohibit the setting up of resorts on the island five years ago.

This was among the findings of a five-day scientific expedition to Sipadan Island Park, which ended on Friday, Sabah Parks director Paul Basintal said.

The restriction has resulted in positive impact to coral growth in the 16,846ha park, thus preserving the area as a turtle feeding ground.

Forty-nine people took part in the expedition comprising researchers from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Sabah Parks, Fisheries Department, Mineral and Geoscience Department and World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

Paul said Sabah Parks would formulate a management plan for Sipadan Island Park to preserve its marine resources in line with the move to gazette the area as a protected park last year. The plan, comprising short-term and long-term measures, will provide a more systematic management of the island's marine heritage,

Scientific data obtained during the expedition would serve as a guideline in formulating the plan.