By Cynthia Ong Ed. The following is written by my friend and colleague, Cynthia. I endorse her views and recommend you read them because by chosing to mobilise around the issue of clean energy, Cynthia has shown how our shared values of environmental conservation, sustainable development and just government are being swept under the carpet in Malaysia. Dear Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, I write to you as a deeply concerned and saddened citizen of Malaysia. For most of the 45 years of my life, I have been proud to be Malaysian....

By Ian Hall “We only use biodegradable plastic”. This was a claim made by a resort hotel in support of their responsible tourism policy. Upon further investigation the claim was clarified to mean degradable plastic. Some plastics marked as ‘degradable’ might not be as environmentally-friendly as consumers think. The implications go beyond greenwashing. In our rush to damn plastic bags and bottles, environmentalists may have compromised efforts to recycle. Degradable plastic turns out to mean that the plastic...

By Ian Hall Nuclear Power has been in the Malaysian news recently after their government gave the go ahead for a nuclear power plant to begin operating from 2021 Environmentalists and NIMBY's are usually vocal in their opposition to such announcements and indeed the Malaysia Nature Society has been debating the issue for some time before the government announcement. As an environmentalist and a disciple of James Lovelock I felt the need to weigh in on the debate with a letter to the editor of Malaysian Naturalist magazine...

One year after cessation of logging in Ulu Segama Malua, timber is still being trucked out of this area under cover of darkness. Late in 2008 it was common to pass 30 or more fully laden logging trucks during the 2-3 hour journey to Danum Valley Field Centre or Borneo Rainforest Lodge. I interpreted this glut as the last binge before the forests in this part of the Yayasan Sabah concession are converted to more sustainable use such as eco-tourism, scientific research or ecosystem services. Now thankfully most tourism...

At last I get around to reading Biomimicry and it has helped me to understand the balance between the natural and the man-made. Browsing Mongabay the other day I came upon this article which discussed the conflict between environmentalists and the timber industry in Tasmania. The piece was structured around the views of those who see tasmanian forests as an exploitative resource, those that think it should remain untouched and a minority who think it could be both. This got me wondering where I would place myself on this...