Pollution kills and debilitates. And of all forms of pollution, air pollution is perhaps the most insidious, for breathe air we must throughout our lives and if the air is polluted we have no choice but to breathe in all that invisible pollution along with the oxygen that we need…

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…

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…

When it comes to the annual haze this year, so far so good. Back in March, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar stressed that the yearly scourge of billowing smoke that can make life hell for days and weeks at a time across much of Malaysia would not happen in…

They’ve had enough and set out to stop it. “They”: an alliance of farmers, citizens, environmentalists and agriculture companies. “It”: the periodic haze caused by the widespread burning of trees, shrubs and other vegetation in Indonesia. The Fire-Free Alliance, which was set up a year ago in the wake of a massive…

Air pollution debilitates and kills. It may cause Alzheimer’s disease. It may increase the risk of obesity. And it may make us perform worse at work. Now here is another adverse health effect that air pollution may cause: premature births. According to a new scientific study conducted by The Stockholm Environment Institute…

If you want to see an example of what rampant air pollution can do, take a look at New Delhi. Air pollution in India’s capital has reached levels that are over 16 times the normal limit, forcing the country’s government to declare a national emergency. The situation has got so bad…

Can peatlands be converted into palm oil plantations in an environmentally friendly way? Some scientists say “yes,” some scientists say “no way.” The debate has erupted after several scientists from the state government-sponsored think tank Tropical Peat Research Laboratory in Sarawak presented their views at a conference – organized by…

First came a study. A joint study from scientists at Harvard and Columbia universities in the US has posited that prolonged haze from Indonesian forest fires year September and October caused an estimated 100,000 premature deaths in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The study, which was published in the journal Environmental…

For years and years nothing has stopped numerous people in Indonesia from setting peatlands and forests alight, thereby triggering massive fires and vast clouds of toxic haze that has regularly covered much of neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Entreaties from environmentalists have not stopped them. Nor the threat of fines. Nor…

Here we go again: yet another forest fire. A flash fire that started on February 21 in Sarawak devastated at least 200 hectares of forest in the northern part of the state within the space of a single day. The flames, which continue to rage, have already destroyed precious natural resources,…