That ice sheets at the Arctic have been melting rapidly as a result of global warming we have long known. Here’s something that may come as a surprise, though: the effects of that melting ice will be felt as far away as the Indian Ocean in what may yet become uncontrollable climate change…

We continue to pump vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow. The more we do that, the worse the planet’s prospects get because global temperatures will rise as a result of CO2’s heat-trapping molecules. Yet certain living organisms will thrive….

We continue to pump vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That much we’ve known, of course. But here’s a bit of good news (such as it is): We’re not pumping more of those gases than we did a few years ago. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have…

It often seems like there is nothing but gloom and doom when it comes to the environment. We’ve reached a point of no return on climate change. We’ve been making our oceans sick with global warming. We’ve been driving myriad animals like Malaysia’s iconic tigers to the brink of extinction. But…

Come November, Malaysia will sign the Paris Agreement, according to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. “God willing, Malaysia will ratify the agreement after Nov 4, because we will present the paper to the Cabinet to decide (whether to ratify or otherwise),” he announced at a press…

Here comes one of the latest signs of global warming: plankton blooms in the ocean. A large area on the surface of the sea east of New Zealand, say local scientists, has become covered in white algae known as coccolithophores. Under favorable conditions, these algae begin to “bloom,” turning the…

What with levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere having reached a tipping point, the planet’s climate is in for some rough times ahead. The scramble is now on to try and mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases with scientific means. And those efforts have now got a welcome shot…

When we think of oceans, we tend to think of calming azure waters, eye-catching corals and a Poseidon’s cornucopia of marine species. We rarely think of disease. We might as well begin to do that, though. Here’s why: Oceans, say scientists, are becoming conduits of disease worldwide. The main culprit…

As mass industrialization got underway in England, and much of the rest of Europe, we began to change the planet’s climate by emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. From the mid-19th century onward we set global warming unwittingly in motion. Or so the story goes. Turns out…

When it comes to coral reefs, good news is pretty hard to come by. They are coming under increased stress from a variety of environmental factors with mass bleaching episodes becoming common from Malaysia to Australia. And then there is global warming, which, too, poses a clear and present danger…

Hell and high water. That’s what awaits much of Malaysia by the end of the century – unless the country and the region at large fulfill their obligations to reduce their carbon emissions. So says Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, minister of Natural Resources and Environment. Specifically, the minister warns, a…

Despite all the projected gloom and doom, climate change remains an abstract concept for many people, especially in tropical countries like Malaysia. The weather has always been pretty hot so what’s another degree Celsius or two, right? Wrong. Global warming is going to get personal – and not in the…

We’ve had a chance to curb climate change. But we’ve blown it. So say researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, who have looked more closely at the pledges made by individual countries at last December’s climate conference in Paris to reduce their carbon emissions. Those…

If you thought the current heat wave with simultaneous droughts was bad enough, you might want to brace yourself: it’s but a mere foretaste of what’s to come. And not just in Malaysia but globally. Scientists are warning that among its myriad adverse effects climate change will likely bring about…

Economic growth and environmental protection can be strange bedfellows with the former frequently coming at the expense of the latter. But that will no longer be so in Sabah – not if we are to believe the state’s Chief Minister Musa Aman. Musa has called on environmental groups to join…

In 2013 a smoldering peat fire near the Raja Musa Forest Reserve in Selangor triggered an environmental disaster, decimating the local flora and enveloping a large swath of land in choking, lingering haze. The fire, which left massive ecological devastation in its wake, was set off by a palm oil…