We may have turned the Sahara into a Desert

We may have turned the Sahara into a Desert

People once lived in harmony with Mother Nature, leaving barely a footprint on the pristine environment of the planet. Then came the Industrial Revolution and all that changed: technology unleashed our destructive forces on Earth. Right? Wrong. Or at least not entirely right. Buried under the endless sand dunes of the…

Food for Thought: Organic Farming may not be a ‘Holy Grail’

Food for Thought: Organic Farming may not be a ‘Holy Grail’

Organic agriculture is always better. Or so a prevalent school of thinking in environmentalist circles goes. Turns out, however, that this thinking is not entirely correct. Sure, organic agriculture has many things to recommend it, but it’s not a foolproof panacea for human-made environmental ills brought on by farming practices around the planet….

A Teen wants to plant a Trillion Trees

A Teen wants to plant a Trillion Trees

Felix Finkbeiner is 19 years old and in many ways he is just like your average teen. He is gawky and scrawny, wears rimmed spectacles, and has a ready smile. Yet the German teenager is already a world-famous conservationist who has set himself a mighty goal: to plant a trillion trees around the world….

Mangroves are Uprooted in Penang

Mangroves are Uprooted in Penang

The mangrove trees in Bagan Jermal were in the way so they had to go. To make way for a coastal reclamation project in Penang, the trees were uprooted from their ancestral swamp and transplanted in Sungai Acheh on the mainland. All that happened with the approval of the state’s Environment Department (DOE). “The mangrove trees were…

We are Starving the Oceans of Oxygen

We are Starving the Oceans of Oxygen

We all need oxygen to live, and so do marine animals. The trouble is that sea creatures have less and less oxygen to draw upon as a result of human activities. According to a new study, the amount of oxygen in the world’s oceans has dropped by 2% over the past 50 years…

The Arctic is in Meltdown

The Arctic is in Meltdown

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…

Here’s a new Way to speed up Carbon capture in Plants

Here’s a new Way to speed up Carbon capture in Plants

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….

Wan Junaidi: Malaysia is ‘committed’ to Saving its Forests

Wan Junaidi: Malaysia is ‘committed’ to Saving its Forests

Malaysia is fully committed to managing its forests sustainably. So says the country’s minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. Speaking at a UN conference on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco, the minister stressed that Malaysia would protect its forests while it would also fulfill its commitments on tackling…

Global CO2 emissions have Flatlined

Global CO2 emissions have Flatlined

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…

Clean Energy is on the Way Up and Up

Clean Energy is on the Way Up and Up

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…

Malaysia ‘will sign’ the Paris Agreement

Malaysia ‘will sign’ the Paris Agreement

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…

Plankton Bloom in the Ocean is a sign of Climate Change

Plankton Bloom in the Ocean is a sign of Climate Change

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…

Welcome to the Anthropocene

Welcome to the Anthropocene

We have, ladies and gentlemen, entered the Anthropocene. Whether we should be happy about that is another matter altogether. The “Anthropocene” is a new epoch in the life of the planet that has been so named because of human beings’ outsize, and invariably harmful, effects on Planet Earth. Endemic pollution, human-induced…

We’ve been Warming the Climate longer than We’ve Thought

We’ve been Warming the Climate longer than We’ve Thought

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…