Love Will Save This Place - Review for This Changes Everything

Climate change is a boring topic when you live within a community that shows less enthusiasm towards environmental issues as politics are always in the limelight these days. Yeah we know about green house gases, increasing temperature, melting glaciers, rising sea level, extreme weather, but what else? Malaysia is a tropical country where the weather is almost always hot or hotter, we complain about the heat every day, and agree with each other that 'it must be the climate change', and then we switch on the air-conditioner in the house, escaping the hellish weather out there, forgetting about climate change as we can't do anything about it. I roll my eyes all the time when lecturers start talking about climate change, thinking 'I know I know, I am aware of every single mechanism of climate change, I have watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and studied about it for a few semesters. This bad attitude (I admit that it is a really bad attitude) continued until I read this book - This Changes Everything - written by Naomi Klein.

Volunteering with MareCet - Matang Dolphin Research

Nothing could have been more exciting than seeing an offer for a volunteering opportunity with MareCet on dolphin research in Matang during the dull exam weeks! I am not a person who crazy over dolphins that I want to swim with dolphins so so much (most people asked me whether I swam with dolphins when they knew that I went to this research), but I love animals in general. It could be a great opportunity for me to practise what I learnt so far in Environmental Science since we have limited opportunities to go for a real serious field trip due to limited budget and equipment in our faculty. After checking the dates (almost right after my exam weeks, for 5 days), I immediately sent an email to the contact provided in the picture posted by Langkawi Dolphin Research (this Facebook page is managed by MareCet) and a few days later, the email informing me that I got the offer greeted me in the morning which really made my day~

What Is Wrong with Mega Dams? - The Baram Dam Project

When we talk about renewable energy, it is about the production of electricity using renewable resources such as sun light and wind, which won't be depleted. Some people might suggest hydroelectricity which is obtained through the turning of turbines using the gushing of water from a higher elevation (potential energy to mechanical energy to electrical energy) which does not use up any resource as well. The most renowned hydroelectrical dam in China - Three Gorges Dam at Yangtze River which covers an area of 632 square kilometres generates a total of 84 TeraWatts-hours of electricity each year (a typical light bulb requires only 60 Watts to light up).  

The Bakun Dam.
(photo taken from the Sarawak Report website)

Introduction to Emerging Contaminants (ECs)

(Image taken from Clean Water Action website)

Water is one of the most vital components in human life that 3.4 millions people die each year due to water-related diseases, which is more than the lives claimed in wars. During the 19th century, one of the water-borne diseases named Cholera spread from Ganges delta in India throughout the world that it created another 6 subsequent pandemics which killed millions of people from all continents. Around 430 - 424 B.C.E., it is believed that Typhoid fever wiped out one third of the population of Athens, bringing the Golden Age of Pericles to an end. Besides the diseases related to water contaminated by bacteria, mosquito-borne diseases such as Malaria and Dengue which are discovered since 2700 B.C.E. and 265 C.E. respectively are also closely-related to our water since mosquitoes require stagnant water to breed. At around 20th century, contamination of water by heavy metals such as lead and mercury is being taken seriously since after the incidents of lead and mercury poisonings.