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~

Oxygen --- Identification of Water Pollution

"Do you know why do we need to measure the oxygen concentration in the water?"
"To test whether it is enough for the fish to breath?"

Ok that was a sample answer most probably will be given by normal people who are not into Chemistry or Water Science. The basic knowledge that we know about oxygen is, all living things need oxygen to breath and stay alive. From the perspective of Environmental Science, the oxygen concentration in the water means something more, and we call the oxygen 'dissolved oxygen' (DO). Oxygen is soluble in water, that's why aquatic life can breath underwater!

(image taken from Michael Prescotts's Blog)

The Bakun Dam - Why It Is Wrong

It has been more than 600 days since the Baram Dam Blockade is set up. I have written a post about the negative impact due to the construction of dam last year (What Is Wrong With Mega Dam - The Baram Dam Project) after attending a charity lunch aimed to raise fund for the protest towards the construction of Baram Dam in Sarawak. For this semester I need to do an oral presentation on any topic related to my current field which is Environmental Studies during my English class (which is compulsory for each and everyone in UPM ugh, well I didn't say I dislike it). So I think this is a good time for me to bring up this issue again through direct transfer of message in the class. And I don't like giving speech, I just don't.

The beautiful view on Bakun Dam which hides the ugliness under the water.
(photo taken from Mohd Hisyamudin's blog)

We are required to prepare a audience analysis questionaire to see how much the audience knows about the topic you are going to talk about. Well, everyone knows what a dam is but mostly not sure whether a dam is beneficial overall or not. I am glad that they chose 'not sure' instead of a yes or no because I believe it sparkled some thoughts inside them, although it might last just for awhile. The main purpose of my speech is, again, to inform my audience the negative impact of dam construction in Malaysia in terms of environment and also demography of indigenous people. This time I am going to focus on just one single dam in Malaysia as the case study so that people can see it more clearly and feel it more deeply because it happens in our country, on fellow Malaysians even though the dam is located across the sea in Sarawak!

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)

Agricultural Expo and UPM 38th Convocation Festival - Environmental Forensic Booth

This was the first time I went to the Agricultural Expo and UPM 38th Convocation Festival held at Bukit Ekspo with the theme 'Agricultural Innovation Centre of Living'. It is an annual event which will be held during the convocation period with exhibitions by various faculties and departments of UPM. Me and Erika spent around two hours there to explore the contribution of UPM mainly in the agricultural sectors. Here's the photo blog of some of my findings there.

The exhibition bus by UPM Research Centre about city agriculture.

The inside of the exhibition bus. Products made of extract of plants are exhibited (these products are not commercialised yet). Information regarding the medical usage of traditional plants are being shown as well. The person in-charged there was very helpful in giving explanation about those plants. It's really eye-opening that actually plants that we might easily oversee bring health benefits.

Shah Alam Trees for Life August 2014 - Trailer

(Image taken from the event page)

As you can see from the banner, it's the Shah Alam Trees for Life of August 2014. Date, time and location, all the details are up there, just get out from your bed in the morning on the event day and plant something instead of wasting time snuggling up in bed... *awkward silence*  Hahaha, just kidding. Well it's the time of the month again! Shah Alam Trees for Life has come back with something special!

I am not sure why I am crazy over this 'special' thing. Maybe you will say, 'nah, it's just some fruit trees'. YOU ARE WRONG! Won't you feel excited when you walk around in the park and see red rambutans dangling from the branches? The flaming red colour in contrast with the green leaves, swaying as wind blows by. That's just sound awesome simply by imagining it! If  you are lucky enough you might even have the chance to take a bite from the white juicy flesh (you have to be lucky because...you know, sometimes they just disappear the day before you decided to grab it as you have been waiting a bit too long for them to get ripe or you are just not tall enough and you do not dare to climb trees, hahaha). Don't like rambutan? How about the queen of fruits - the mangosteen?? Maybe the purple colour will not be that obvious to see but who cares, they tastes great!

Species of trees going to be planted. Basically there are shady trees, shrubs and fruit trees. The common names of the fruits are stated in Malay, so I have some problems in identifying what they really are except a few such as mangosteen, starfruit and rambutan. Maybe you can tell me? *wink*

If you are interested to join in for some fun with your friends, go to the event page and press 'going' (Facebook is really convenient in this). This can be a low budget gathering suitable for students like us. Why always go to the mall for gathering when we have some other meaningful things to do? Breakfast and lunch are also provided! So no more argument about where and what to eat, hahaha. What you have to bring is just gardening gloves (you can skip this if you want to have closer contact with Nature) and water tumbler (using paper cups are like cutting down trees, how ironic). All gardening tools will be provided and I believe that holes for trees are dug before hand as well (according to my past experiences, hehe). There are approximately 2000 Groots, erm, I mean trees, waiting for you in Shah Alam. After the event ends, it will give you another reason to come back to this very place with your friends again the next year and next next year and next next next year. Friendship goes on, just like trees grow on, right?

Imagine this is what you see months later after you planted them with your own hands!
(Image taken from Taste My Vietnam website)

Although I can't make it this time because I am currently having my semester break in Penang, I will look forward to the one in the following months. I have written two blog posts about Shah Alam Trees for Life, one in 2013 and the other in June 2014. So this is the first trailer I wrote for the event! Since trailer is provided, put your hesitation aside and come! Cheers!