Ocean a new source of drinking water?

I am sure we are all well aware that our earth is sorrounded my water. Sadly, about 97% of it is too salty for human consumption. Earth's growing population, drought, rising temperatures and increasing industrial demand are straining the available water sources globally. According to the United Nations, more than 1 billion people live in water scarce areas and that figure will probably hit 1.8 billion by the 2025.

With this growing threat, many are turning to desalination - i.e. get fresh water from salt water. Salt water is plentiful from the ocean and can be deemed a limitless and drought-proof supply of water. Globally, there are an estimated 13,080 desalination plants producing about 55.6 million cubic metres of drinkable water (sounds like a lot right? But that is only about 0.5% of the global water use).

Desalination does sound like a very viable and lucrative solution to our water scarcity problem. However, some issues do arise from the use of desalination plants:-

• Plants mean more energy consumption - a large desalination plant can use up enough electricity in one year to power more than 30,000 homes;
• Greenhouse gases produced by the plants;

Fortunately, there is a brighter side to the above problems - advanced technology and continuous research being done are making cost and energy requirements lower. Although it does not eliminate the problem, at least it allows more time for more research to be done to promote sustainability.

Desalination may well be the way forward to meet our growing water needs but to first control our growing water need, I believe we should all start saving water.....

Further reading: The Economist June 7th 2008

When are we going to start banning plastic bags in Malaysia?

Early April this year San Francisco became the first and only U.S. city to ban the use of plastic bags. Now, the rest of the country seems to be following in its footsteps. 

Kudos!!! Plastic bags after all endanger wildlife and can take up to a whopping thousand years to decompose.

Surveys done across the U.S. show that up to 54% of Americans believe that plastic, non-compostable shopping bags should be banned. In addition, a survey done on a population of 1,080 Americans showed that at least one-third of Americans take reusable shopping bags to food stores. 

Globally, many countries are following this move to promote sustainability and to make our planet a greener place for future generations. Those countries include Bangladesh and China. How about Malaysia?

Photos: Reuters

Mother earth backlash

It's been a while since I got in touch with environmental issues. For starters, I think we as humans and as living creatures who have been granted the gift of the mind should not neglect the fact that even though we are are constantly introducing new technologies to improve our lives, we have taken our earth for granted.

When was the last time any of us sat down to just ask ourselves, "will the world be a better place for my future generations?". The picture below is probably the most commonly used photo of our earth from space.

I don't know about you, but I think the earth is one of the unexplained wonders of this universe. Who would have thought a big rock sphere could sustain lives of so many living beings from the very minute form of microbes to sea creatures, land creatures and we humans? Did you know that the very blue planet in the picture sustains approximately the lives of close to 9 billion people?

At this juncture, our planet earth is suffering from global warming - a problem of which close to none of us care about or even think about in our daily lives. We get on with our lives, our daily routines and just live as if everything's okay. But the sad truth is, everything's not okay and very , very far from okay. Take a look at the graph below that illustrates how much the anomaly in temperature has drastically become over the years from 1880 to 2000, and believe you me at 2008, it has only gone higher - possibly bringing to light the term "off the charts". The source of the graph - NASA, for those who want to do some further reading.

No doubt, the trend of highs and lows in the temperature are still visible but the anomaly has clearly been going up and up. How much further are we going to ignore this clear warning from our mother earth? Countries worldwide are already in the Kyoto agreement leaving only the USA and Australia, which have not signed up yet, but we have to realise controlling the emission of CO2 is not merely a political act and there is only so much governments can do. It is up to us to make the change if we want a better tomorrow for our children.

To date, we have witnessed some drastic changes in the weather - increased in number hurricanes especially in the USA and Japan, unpredictable tsunamis, increase in seismic activities. I leave in Malaysia, and I can sure tell you the rains today and the rains I used to experience when I was kid are so different. Wind speeds have picked up ever since the mountains were mowed down to make room for development, temperatures 10 years ago in Kuala Lumpur used to be a comfortable 27C in the afternoon, now afternoon temperatures average between 33C to sometimes even 37C. Isn't that a clear enough sign?

Virtually all of us are stuck in this paradigm, ignoring the grave truth of global warming. If we want a better tomorrow, we have to start today; in fact we should have started yesterday or even the day before yesterday. One of us making a change isn't enough, but if all us can start spreading the word and changing our lifestyles to a more sustainable approach, I believe we can assist in bringing a more sustainable earth and future. Remember - 9 billion of us on earth can really make a change.

Further understanding: watch "The Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore, visit The Green Guide, Reuters Environment Blog

Trade bans, a blunt tool for saving endangered species?

At one point probably in the mid-nineties, elephants were in the list of endangered species due to poaching for the valuable tusks. The dwindling in number of elephants were mainly felt in Tanzania, Zambia, and Sudan.


The common believe is that when the buying stops, the killing stops but history might prove it wrong. Trade bans have hardly work, and it offers a pessimistic lesson. Over the last few decades, the black rhino has become extinct in 18 countries where they were common and their population continue to fall drastically in other countries. The same goes to the Yangzi river dolphin. Even with a fall in consumption, as with ivory, demand - and thus poaching - has a habit of coming back.


In addition, contrary to stopping the poaching by way of trade bans, it has actually made poaching more rampant. This is due to the fall in supply, and the very fundamentals of economics explains that continuing growth in demand but with difficulties in sourcing for supplies only spurs the increase in price. To make matters worse, the trade ban opens a very lucrative door to illegal traders to make a lot of money in the black market. Over the recent years, there has also been an increse in criminal gang activities that is as close as impossible to eliminate.


Moreover, species worldwide are reducing in numbers due to many other reasons besides poaching. Wildlife is threatened by the loss of land, fragmentation of habitats, deteriorating ecosystems and invasive foreign species - all of which are human doing. By banning trade, it has not help in protecting species but rather made the problem of dwindling number worse because trade ban makes such animals worthless - killing is made simple or these animals are simply left to die.


The better solution, would be the revers - by making wildlife more valuable to man. Tourism, for instance offers great rewards. Gorillas in Rwanda are doing well population-wise and the country earn financially with tourists paying handsomely to see the gorillas. On the contrary, gorillas in Congo are suffering due to hunters who clear them out and possess their land.

Another way available is to exploit the animals in more sustainable manner. After all, killing individual creatures need not necessarily harm the populations. Animals can be bred for trade purposes - Rhino horns can be cut off without killing the rhinos.


In a nutshell, it is understandable that sustainable exploitation is not easy and will not always work. But it is a start, and a good start would be create a valuable product - animals. From there, get the backing from the law and the government. The locals must feel the sense of ownership and the sense of security in what they produce if they are going to protect them. But one thing is for sure - sustainable exploitation beats trade bans: it earns money thereby giving these precious animals a glimmer of hope!

Further reading: The Economist March 8th 2008.