The world’s first ever national inquiry into the responsibility of the fossil fuel industry for its negative impacts on human rights resulting from climate change is taking place today in the Philippines, just a single day after Human Rights Day on December 10. Leading oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP,…

A small slap on the wrist is how conservationist groups see the sentence handed down in Ipoh to a man who was convicted of having been in illegal possession of the carcass of a Malayan tiger. The man was caught by Perhilitan officials as he was carrying the dead tiger…

When nature calls, we have to answer. Yet how we do so can make a whole lot of difference to the environment. A Japanese company, which has a branch in Malaysia, says it has made answering nature’s call a lot more eco-friendly. DAIO International has designed self-processing bio-toilets that come…

Poachers and hunters, armed and dangerous as they frequently are, pose a threat not only to wildlife but to wildlife officials too. So what to do? The solution may lie in arming some wildlife rangers themselves so that they can defend wild animals and themselves alike more effectively against armed…

Fuel subsidies are, on the surface, a good thing. They can boost the economy and help economically deprived Malaysians save up on fuel costs. Yet they also come with environmental costs. Cheaper gasoline prices would mean Malaysians would think less of using public transport and opt instead to drive around…

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…

Almost two years after a moratorium on all bauxite mining in Pahang was imposed, illegal mining continues to be carried out in the Kuantan area. Should that be surprising? Hardly. There have long been reports of operators breaking the ban by clandestinely mining and transporting the iron ore. “There are…

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….

Malaysians are all too familiar with the periodic haze from slash-and-burning cultivation, which regularly ends up covering much of the country in noxious fumes for days and weeks on end. Beyond the obvious health effects, the haze exudes an air of inconvenience. Traffic often grinds to a standstill in affected…

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…