Hydroelectric dams look good on paper. They are far cleaner sources of energy than fossil fuel-powered plants, which is certainly a big plus. The trouble, though, is that the construction and operation of hydroelectric dams can deal massive damage to local ecosystems. That is why Orang Asli activists calling themselves…

In Bangkok, Thailand, schools had to be shut for days. In Warsaw, Poland, the sky darkened as much of the city was swathed in a baleful miasma. In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, children’s health came under serious threat. All these events happened at various parts of the globe within the space of…

The pictures are appalling. Taken by tourists on the resort island Pulau Mabul, they show some locals butchering large mantra rays in the shallows of the sea. Reportedly 13 devil sharks and two oceanic manta rays were among the marine creatures that were slaughtered by villagers in full view of…

Once in a while we come across stories from across Malaysia that warm the cockles of our hearts. Some of these stories involve locals who do the right thing and help protect the country’s ever-beleaguered wildlife. A case in point is a man who came across a young Sunda pangolin…

Plastic bags sure can come in handy. We can pick them up freely at stores and shops, carry our goods in them, and then dispose of them without a second thought. The trouble, of course, is that they are a scourge on the environment. Discarded mounds of non-biodegradable bags add…

Across Malaysia herds of wild elephants are increasingly coming into contact with people. They may end up severely injured or dead as a result. The pachyderms may be poisoned or shot when they venture into plantations to snack on crops. But it does not have to be this way. Take…

If people had been doing this to other people, we’d call it genocide. Yet that’s what people have been doing to Borneo’s orangutans: perpetrating a form of eco-genocide against them. To wit: in this new century as many as 100,000 of the critically endangered primates have died off on the…

As if warming water temperatures were not bad enough for them, the region’s fragile coral reefs are facing an existential threat from another source: plastic waste. Reefs in the Asia-Pacific region have been swamped with billions of pieces of plastic waste, large and small, which has increased the threat of…

We all want to live well. Why would we not? Wanting to do so is only human, after all. There’s just one problem: conspicuous consumption, which is often confused with living well, is environmentally unsustainable. Don’t take our word for it. There’s research to prove it. According to a paper…

This may seem like harmless fun: tourists posing as mermaids in the sea. Except several women decided to do so at fragile coral reefs in a southern province of Thailand, near Malaysia. At least three Thai women had themselves photographed while sitting on a mountain coral underwater at Mu Koh…

Pangolins are among the world’s most harmless and strangest mammals. They are also among its most trafficked animals, being driven inexorably ever closer to exctinction by unscrupulous poachers and wildlife trafficking syndicates. It seems the outrages against these shy and reclusive mammals never end. A case in point: Some 4,000…

When it comes to global wildlife conservation, it routinely seems one step forward, one step back. On the upside, though, Hong Kong has now taken a large step forward. The Chinese territory is one of the planet’s largest markets for ivory, and lawmakers in the city state have approved a…

Sea turtle nesting sites in Labuan are declining. As compared to 2016 there are a third fewer such landings on Kuraman and Rusukan Besar islands by hawksbill turtles, olive-ridley turtles and green turtles. So says Anuar Deraman, director of Labuan Marine Park. “Despite [an] increase of 18% in hawksbill sea…

A male orangutan was found dead by villagers in East Kutai district in Indonesian Borneo. His body had been riddled with  air gun pellets, some 130 shots in all. The ape had also been attacked with a machete. “We found pellets all over its body. There were also a number…

Microplastics may seem innocuous enough. They are barely visible plastic beads that are the size of sand grains. What harm could they do? Plenty. Microplastics have spread far and wide in the world’s oceans, entering food chains. Even table salt has been contaminated by these tiny pollutants. A myriad of…

Malaysians, or most of them at any rate, are notorious wastrels. In case you still harbor doubts about the truth of this, here is a shocking fact: in Kuching, Sarawak, residents degerate 800 grams of waste on average every single day. That level of wastage amounts to 690,000kg of waste…