Environmental Issues In 2018

If you live in Greater KL / Klang Valley, you would know that we have had our share of flash floods. This is frequently due to plastic and other rubbish clogging our sewers and inhibiting smooth flow of water.

We have ignored it for long enough.

In fact, it seemed like the previous administration under Najib Razak did nothing about it. There are bicycle lanes in the city, but that seems to be the extent of their "green' credentials.

The Pakatan Harapan administration has made rather unpopular rulings with regard to single-use plastics, and hopefully, this will reduce both production and usage.

Not everything is bad news these days; Malaysia is being recognised for its efforts in cleaning up the world in 7 countries that shook up our planet in 2018:

In September, Malaysia announced that it aims to eliminate single-use plastic by 2030, making it the first country in Southeast Asia to take bold action against plastic pollution. Its weapons in the plastic battle include a nationwide charge on plastic bags and a market for environmentally-friendly alternatives. A month later, the country moved to restrict imports of plastic that had led to the rise of illegal recycling plants across the region after China’s waste ban in January.

The new government also has the region cheering for its appointment of Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia’s newly minted Minister of Energy, Green Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment. A few months into office, she exercised her power to bust the country’s long dependency on fossil fuels, cancelling four independent energy contracts this year that would have otherwise gone to coal companies. The country’s youngest female minister in cabinet is also ready to take legal arms against Australian company Lynas for their accumulation of radioactive waste within their Malaysian operations.

I am glad we have reduced our dependence on coal. It's dirty fuel, and the pollution from emissions has to go somewhere.

The difficulty of being an oil-producing country is that we probably use a fair amount of it ourselves. That would be step two in improving the environment, reducing its use if not eliminating it altogether.

Most readers know what I think of Lynas. It needs to go.

But things are looking up. We can preserve this planet.