There may be only as few as 400 wild Bornean banteng left in Sabah so losing any more of them places the species ever more at risk of going extinct. That is why the poaching of three banteng within the space of a few days recently has alarmed and angered…
A sad part of development in Malaysia is that it rarely if ever comes without environmental costs. And so it has proved with the East Coast Rail Line. Aware of the hazards the new rail link will pose to wildlife, environmentalists have been calling on policymakers to put the project on…
Air pollution can cause a whole host of ailments from preterm births to Alzheimer’s disease to strokes. That we’ve already known. Now we can add another debilitating condition to the side-effects of prolonged exposure to air-borne particulates: weakened bones. According to researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health…
When it comes to tackling climate change, it seems to be a classic case of “one step forward, two steps back.” Just last year, for instance, scientists reported that at long last global CO2 emissions had flatlined, meaning that we’d stopped pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than before….
At times wildlife traffickers try to smuggle animal parts out of Malaysia in suitcases at airports. At other times they do so by sending such illicit merchandise abroad by mail. They are quite brazen, yes. Thankfully, alert customs officials can and do regularly step in and stop the shipments from…
News alert: Most of coral reefs around the oceans will likely be gone by mid-century unless we cut back on our CO2 emissions. According to scientists who have studied corals and published their findings in the journal Science Advances, corals in cooler waters may be able to adapt to slightly…
Economic growth is a must for free and prosperous modern societies. Yet that growth must be in line with sound environmental principles because that is the only we can ensure that our planet will avoid becoming an environmental basket case and can begin to heal itself at last. Not only…
Lots of Malaysians love to have pets. Many of these Malaysians prefer “exotic” pets: monkeys, slow lorises, binturongs, snakes, turtles and a whole host of other illegally kept wild animals. Much attention, including on this site, has been focused on the rampant illegal wildlife trade that facilities the exotic pet…
If you had to wager on whether a tree grows better in an urban setting or in a more natural environment, you would no doubt wager on the latter. But you would be wrong. It turns out that trees grow faster in cities than in rural areas. Or so say…
Last year was the hottest on record, according to NASA. The culprit: our massive amount of greenhouse gas emissions that has been changing the planet’s climate inexorably for the worse. Now here comes more bad news: this year is set to become warmer still, according to the World Meteorological Organization…
Come next year, Malaysia’s environment will have a powerful new ally: a comprehensive law that will enable federal authorities to throw the book at polluters and other wrongdoers far more effectively. This is according to the drafters of a new Environmental Protection Act, which will replace the current law called…
Malaysian businesses can do a lot to help save the country’s world-famous environment. For starters, they can do this by refraining from polluting Malaysia’s air and water. Yet some environmentally conscious companies do not stop there. Malaysia Airlines Bh has, for one, vowed to take a firm stance against international…
Many of the world’s developed nations are cutting back on their carbon emissions in order to help the planet stave off the worst side-effects of climate change. That won’t be enough, however, because it’s no longer from the industrialized west but from the industrializing east, especially China and India, that…
The wild pygmy elephant was found dead near a small river at an oil palm plantation in Tawau. The pachyderm’s remains were riddled with three bullets. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out what happened: the bull elephant had been killed either by plantation workers or local farmers…
The bushmeat trade in Sabah is an acute problem, posing as it does an grave threat to the continued survival of endangered species in the wild. Poachers around the state’s forests carry on killing protected animals just so that someone can eat them. Encouragingly, however, local authorities are aware of…
One hundred newly planted saplings may not seem like all that many, yet these new saplings could now serve a vital function in helping save Malaysia’s last few wild tigers. That is because the saplings were planted at a strategic location in Puncak Botak within Pahang’s Sungai Yu Tiger Corridor….