Green Technology

Now that Malaysia has a Ministry in charge of Green Technology, we need to understand what Green Technology is.

Wikipedia defines Green Technology as similar to Environment Technology or Clean Technology. This technology advocates sustainable development. As I have pointed before, the keyword to anything nowadays is sustainability. Sustainability involves the ability to maintain our natural resources so that they last forever, theoretically.

Sustainability is defined as the ability to meet the needs of society in ways that can continue indefinitely into the future without damaging or depleting natural resources. In short, present needs are satisfied without compromising the ability of our children’s generations to meet their own needs.

Activities that can promote sustainability are:

Recycling

Water Purification

Sewage Treatment

Environmental Remediation

Effluent Gas Treatment

Solid Waste Management

Renewable energy

Basically we need technologies that conserve energy or change consumption patterns to help reduce consumption as well as reduce the amount of waste produced by human activities.

Renewable energy sources include wind energy and solar energy which are also clean, i.e. they do not pollute the atmosphere like coal and petroleum do.Renewable energy can also be harnessed from the waste generated from agricultural activities. This is also called biomass energy. Developed nations like Japan and Scandinavia are currently keen to help the Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil industry adopt the Clean Development Mechanism by converting the palm oil waste to biogas and compost. CDM activities provide additional sources of income for palm oil millers. The solid (empty fruit bunches) and liquid waste (effluent) both of which could be efficiently processed could lead to a sustainable development of various CDM projects in the mill.

Composting enables palm mills to achieve zero waste management as both the Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) are converted to useful income generating by-products. The resulting organic compost could one day prove to be a more environment friendly and effective substitute to petroleum based fertilizer in the plantations.

Converting Biomass to energy is another green technology.In countries like India, the biogas is utilized as cooking gas.

Thus Green Technology also include:

Energy from alternative fuels

The urgent development of alternative fuels, is needed as a new means of generating energy and energy efficiency.

A substantial reduction of greenhouse gases is also possible, by using unleaded gasoline, biodiesel, solar energy, and alternative fuel vehicles, including plug-in hybrid and hybrid electric vehicles.

Green building

Green building encompasses everything from the choice of building materials, energy conservation, and to the location of the building.

Environmentally preferred purchasing

The government should also encourage innovation that involves the search for products with contents and methods of production that have the smallest negative impact on the environment, and should, by regulation be preferred in use for government projects.

Green chemistry

All invention, design and application of chemical products and processes must reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances that is not environment friendly.

Green nanotechnology

Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials at the scale of the nanometer, one billionth of a meter. The adoption of nanotechnology will transform the way that everything in the world is manufactured.

“Green nanotechnology” is the application of green chemistry and green engineering principles to this field.

At Last The Government Goes Green too

At last a Ministry called The Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water is born in Malaysia.I don't know the specific areas being monitored by each ministry but I think the other Ministries; Science, Technology and Innovation, Natural Resources and Environment, and Plantation Industries and Commodities, all could do with adopting green technology themselves. The problem in our small country is often that the Ministries overlap each other in their functions. It could be good in the sense that no one is monopolising everything which leads to corrupt practices. It could also lead to confusion to the various government agencies and to the public at large as to whom to turn too when they face a problem. They may have to go to so many places before a solution is found.

Anyway, green is the way forward for a sustainable Malaysia. I can live with that.

Earth Hour Malaysia

It is great to see that many offices have adopted the Earth Hour as a regular habit .I walked into an office at lunch time yesterday and it was quite dark as most of the staff has gone out to lunch.

Everyone should learn that by a simple act of clicking off the switch,you not only save on your electric bill but do your small part to save the world as well.

The electricity company TNB (Tenaga Nasional Bhd) reported that electricity consumption dipped by 550MW during Earth Hour on Saturday.This was equivalent to 14 million 40-watt fluorescent bulbs. The equivalent in Ringgit was not indicated. TNB's short term loss is our gain.

Ironically, as soon as the Earth Hour was over, most people went back to their normal consumption patterns. It is back to switching on the air conditioners, fans and television and computer sets and watching football all night.

Perhaps Malaysians prefer regular campaigns to make green living a normalcy.Over to you....................Maya Karin, Reshmonu, and all the celebrities gang.