....AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT.....

WILL LYNAS AFFECT KUANTAN SEAFOOD?

NOT RUBBISH, ABOUT RUBBISH

http://bfm.my/assets/files/I%20Love%20KL/Special%20Episodes/2011-10-22_HearandNow_Rubbish-NotMyProblem.mp3

ANOTHER CAMPAIGN GONE COLD.

Time to widen the ‘No Plastic Bags’ ruling says Dr Joginder.

IT was on Jan 1 last year that the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry launched the “No Plastic Bags on Saturday” campaign.

The campaign was simultaneously launched in all states with the themeSave Our Future Generation and Earth. The ministry said the effort was to reduce waste: it’s projections showed that Malaysians would create 30,000 tonnes of solid waste daily by the year 2020.

It was a noble effort, as the ministry put it, “to support the Government’s effort to preserve the environment and the depleting resources while instilling environment-friendly values among the public and businesses”.

It was obvious from the beginning, a recycling attitude wasn’t very much a part of our DNA. After all, the plastic bag was an age-old established tradition.

As such, an escape clause was included – shoppers who decided to do their shopping on Saturdays and required plastic bags could still get them, at 20 sen a bag.

It was reported that “the money collected from the fee would be channelled into a special fund used to conduct environment preservation and protection related programmes as well as activities for consumers and communities”.

In the campaign’s infancy, many shoppers on Saturdays were unaware and ended up having to buy plastic bags.

Maybe many also thought 20 sen a bag was an acceptable compromise.

But I gladly bought three recyclable bags, and am proud to say that these bags have served me well even till today. In fact I use them now on most days when I do shopping.

I must admit I see more recyclable shopping bags now. However, on Saturdays, the plastic bag unfortunately still rules with a vengeance.

After building the scenario, I would like to raise a few issues.

First, the goal was “to preserve the environment and the depleting resources while instilling environment-friendly values among the public and businesses”.

It has been one year, and I think enough time has been given to educate the public and businesses. Shouldn’t we now move on to the next level, i.e. no more plastic bags on Saturdays to eventually increasing the days involved to every day of the week?

The culture we hoped to inculcate was a sense of responsibility in saving our environment. Thus, still allowing the sale of the bags, even at 20 sen, after one year of soft approach to prepare the consumer now seems a bit of a cop out.

Shoppers have been given enough notice. Unless we make the leap to the next level, the rate of change may not be realistic to achieve the goals set.

I am also very much curious about the mentioned “special fund used to conduct environment

preservation and protection related programmes as well as activities for consumers and communities”.

How much has been raised? What has been done so far? What programmes are there in the pipeline?

After all the noble efforts, shouldn’t the public and the businesses at least know the good coming out of it?

Shouldn’t it be time to expand this ruling to all businesses, not just the bigger hypermarkets and retail outlets?

Aren’t we are all children of the same Earth?

A famous native American saying goes, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

I think it is time to move on to the next level . More can and should be done.

Reproduced from the STAR

A DIDICATION TO THOSE WHO DIED TO KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL AND ALIVE.

This is an attempt to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless 'consumers' are combining to destroy life on earth.

It is dedicated to all who died fighting for the planet and those whose lives are on the line today.

….and not forgetting Bruno Manser who disappeared whilst fighting for the Penans.

DANG! THAT SURE IS A HUGE LOAD!

For a population of 1.8million poop generated could be converted into renewable energy, no? Just thinking out loud for Malaysia with a poopulation population of more than 28million.

Youtube courtesy of Mary Maguire

THE SMASHING STORY OF GLASS.

I know of an organization up north that collects clear glass and exports them to Europe for use in Solar Panels.

RUBBISH, NOT MY BUSINESS?

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT IF IT IS YOUR BUSINESS.

IS GEBENG LYNAS’ WASTE BIN?

MALAYSIA’S FIRST KILLER PLANT.

PLEASE VIEW ON BIG SCREEN

SAMPAH CHALLENGES ASTRO TO SHOW THIS!

ONLY THE DUMB DUMPS OR INCINERATE?

Are we determined to increase the amount of waste we are recycling and composting? Have we set a target and if we have what steps are we implementing to meet this target? What is happening to the municipal residual waste after the rest has been sent for recycling and composting. Is the Ministry formulating the most efficient and effective strategy for dealing with residual waste?

Until now, sending all residual waste to landfill has been the most common and short-cut practice. Short-cuts are not solutions. This has got to change. The whole world is doing its utmost to cut down on landfills. Historically, landfill has been the cheaper options but will not be so for much longer. We are a small country and waste management seems not to get priority attention, unlike say, the European Countries. I read that the European Landfill Directive has set very stringent targets to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and failure to comply could potentially lead to severe European refraction fines. They have set targets that by 2010 bio-degradable municipal waste going to landfill must be 75% of 1995 levels, 50% by 2013, and 35% by 2020. DO WE EVEN HAVE THESE TARGETS?

Shouldn’t there be a strong environmental incentive to reduce land filled waste as landfill is a major contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, due to the methane rleased by decomposing waste.

Wouldn’t energy recovery technologies be the best alternative to landfills in terms of how we deal with residual waste?

Like always, Malaysia looks for the easiest way out of a problem. Our answer to energy recovery technologies is INCINERATION. We have some 5 or 6 incinerators and after spending millions, NONE are operating! Yes, NONE! And I am aware that the Selangor government did go to China to negotiate the possibility of having another incinerator to solve its waste management problems.

Incinerators do not provide a renewable source of energy through “capturing” the energy produced by burning waste. The incineration of recyclable material actually results in even more fossil fuel energy being consumed because more of the same materials will need to be used to replace them.

When waste is burned in an incinerator, heat is produced which can be used to create electricity. Proponents of “energy from waste” incinerators claim that electricity created when waste is burned is a type of renewable energy as it displaces the equivalent amount of electricity to be generated at a power station from fossil fuels. However the truth is that incineration actually INCREASES emission of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming compared to recycling. The incinerator will increase Co2 enormously! This means that energy from waste incinerators contribute to climate change rather than reducing it. Here is why!

I quote from “Sound Resources Management Group Inc.”

1. The level of energy “captured” in incinerators compared to the potential energy present in the waste is very low.

2. Incinerators burn fossil fuels when plastic is present in the waste stream, as plastic is made from oil.

3. When materials are destroyed in incinerators, new onces have to be made to replace them. The extraction and processing of virgin materials uses huge amounts of energy. E.g. creating a tone of aluminum cans, made from raw material bauxite, takes around fine times as much energy as producing a tone of recycled aluminum cans. A Canadian study estimated than “on average recycling saves three to five times as much energy as is produced by incerating municipal solid waste.”

TO FILL OR NOT TO FILL!

MAYBE OUR YANG BERKHIDMAT CAN DECIDE?

YOU THINK OUR CITY ELDERS CARE?

Statement by Dr. Joan Clos, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Executive Director of UN-HABITAT on the occasion of World Habitat Day, 3 October 2011 Each year on World Habitat Day, the first Monday in October, we bring to the world's attention a matter of great concern in our rapidly urbanizing world. This year we look at the impact of cities in creating climate change, and, in turn, the impact of climate disruption on cities, and what cities are doing about it. We live in an age where the world's population will have grown to 7 billion by the end of this month and where more than half of them live in towns and cities. Projections indicate that this will increase to two-thirds in just over a generation from now. How we manage this rapid urbanisation is one of the greatest challenges facing us. We must bear in mind that the greatest repercussions of climate disasters both begin and end in cities. According to UN-HABITAT's Cities and Climate Change: Global Report on Human Settlements, it is estimated that by 2050, there could be as many as 200 million environmental refugees worldwide, many of whom will be forced from their homes by rising sea levels and the increased frequency of flooding or drought. Prevention should be addressed through better urban planning and building codes so that city residents, especially the poorest, are protected as far as possible against disaster. Such measures can also help to keep their ecological footprint to the minimum. Climate induced risks such as rising sea levels, tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation events and extreme weather conditions can disrupt the basic fabric and functioning of cities with widespread reverberations for the physical infrastructure, economy and society of cities. These include public health risks in urban areas. We already know that the impacts of climate disruption will be particularly severe in low-elevation coastal zones where many of the world's largest cities are located. And always it is the urban poor, especially slum dwellers, who are most at risk when disaster strikes. We need to stress the provision of adequate adaptation measures based on urban planning. Even though we are still trying to understand some of these extreme climatic events, we have the know-how and the strategies to take preventive measures. Urbanization offers many opportunities to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies to deal with climate change. Given that most global energy consumption occurs in cities, roughly half of it from burning fossil fuels in cities for urban transport, the solution seems obvious. This is due to the fact that the economies of scale produced by the concentration of economic activities in cities also make it cheaper and easier to take action to minimize both emissions and climate hazards. The social, economic and political actors within cities must therefore become key players in developing these strategies. Many towns and cities, especially in developing countries, are still grappling with climate change strategies, working out how to access international climate change funding and how to learn from pioneering cities. We should reflect on this World Habitat Day on how we turn our cities – arguably the greatest achievements of human civilisation – into better cities for the future.

FLASH MOBBING ANYONE?

WHAT ARE FLASHMOBS?

It is where a whole load of people get together and do something unexpected and seemingly unplanned…..like dance routines, or standing stock still in busy places. Well, one of Twitter’s most followed celbs, Stephen Fry (@stephenfry if you want to follow) retweeted a video link to a Flashmob with a message. The bideo explains it best, but a shopping centre in Canada waits…..and waits….and waits for a good citizen to pick up and recycle a plastic bottle, strategically left next to a recycling bin. The cheer she received for doing so cannot fail to raise a smile. Watch this video and ask yourself how long it would take someone in your office, shopping mall or town or neighborhood to do the same.

Flashmob at KLCC HERE

ANY IDEAS FOR THE NEXT FLASHMOB?

TAKING OVER SELANGOR? WEAPON? WASTE!

The first salvo is FIRED!

ALAM FLORA, will cease collecting Selangor waste on

15 October!

The Selangor State Government Exco is meeting this evening to address this potential chaos.

You do not need much guessing on who is behind this.

The Federal Government, read BN, has tried all means from religion to race to win back Selangor.

The people in Selangor were not easily cowed.

They stood their ground until now.

But it will be different now, you bet.

The Federal Government have resorted to playing with DIRT!

Their crony company will let your waste pile high.

HOW NOW SELANGOR?

CAUGHT FLAT-FOOTED?

ITS WAR YAH?

AND WARS ARE ALWAYS DIRTY, NO?

WASTE CHAT 01

News reached Sampahman this month of a story worth a posting here. ERIN O’CONNOR a super model has teamed up with SodaStream to launch a WORLD WITHOUT BOTTLES.

She is spearheading the drive to educate consumers on the benefits of “PRECYCLING” – which they say is reducing waste before recycling is necessary, or what you and I would simple call “waste reduction”. Now is this possible…..world without bottles. Lets hear from you.

+++++

Karl Lagerfeld has described Erin O’Connor as "one of the best models in the world and The Sunday Times in 2007 considered her to be the 39th richest person under 30 in the United Kingdom, with an estimated wealth of 12 million pounds.

RARE EARTH CHINESE EXPERTS EMBARRASSED IN MALAYSIA.

SUGGESTION:

VIEW ON WIDE SCREEN

HIT PAUSE BUTTON TO READ THE ENGLISH SUBTITLES

WILL WE GO POTS OVER POT?

MEDICINES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP.

We should go back to the days when the AMA supported cannabis cures. ‘Medical Marijuana’ is given out legally to only a handful of people while the rest of us are forced into a system that relies on chemicals. Pot is only healthy for the human body.

WORLD HUNGER COULD END.

A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They have two essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming pot seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.

CLOTHES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP.

Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time. You could hand clothing, made from pot, down to your grandchildren. Today, there are American companies that make hemp clothing; usually 50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made it ILLEGAL TO WEAR hemp clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into jail for wearing quality jeans?

The world is crazy…but that does not mean you have to join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news. Tell people, and that includes your children, the truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the word ‘marijuana.’ Realize the history that created it. Make it politically incorrect to say or print the M-word. Fight against the propaganda (designed to favor the agenda of the super rich) and the bullshit. Hemp must be utilized in the future. We need a clean energy source to save our planet. INDUSTRIALIZE HEMP!

The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a million dollars a day to Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other similar agencies. We have all seen their commercials. Now, their motto is: ‘It’s more dangerous than we thought.’ Lies from the powerful corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive and well today.

The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say: If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang wars. The latest anti-pot commercials say: If you buy a joint…you are promoting TERRORISM! The new enemy (terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any way THEY see fit.

There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay your taxes to; the war-makers and nature destroyers. With your funding, they are killing the world right in front of your eyes. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY TOBACCO. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL. NO ONE HAS EVER, EVER DIED FROM SMOKING POT!! In the entire history of the human race, not one death can be attributed to cannabis. Our society has outlawed grass but condones the use of the KILLERS: TOBACCO and ALCOHOL. Hemp should be declassified and placed in DRUG stores to relieve stress. Hardening and constriction of the arteries are bad; but hemp usage actually enlarges the arteries…which is a healthy condition. We have been so conditioned to think that: Smoking is harmful. That is NOT the case for passive pot.

Ingesting THC, hemp’s active agent, has a positive effect; relieving asthma and glaucoma. A joint tends to alleviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy. You are able to eat on hemp. This is a healthy state of being.

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY

HERE

SEIMENS AND LYNAS - BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Efforts to get LYNAS out of Gebeng, Kuantan seems to be ignored by corporations. SIEMENS is the latest! Their latest JV with Lynas is like them telling us, UP YOU….LAMP and US….it is business as usual.

“As you all know, Siemens have recently signed a letter of intent for a JV with Lynas Corp to operate a plant to produce magnets here in Malaysia,” said Fuziah Salleh, MP Kuantan. “Even though the JV has nothing to do with rare earth refinery and extraction, it does provide justification for the existence of LAMP. At the same time it also contradicts Siemens corporate values of supporting Green technology.
This is a great concern for the folks in Kuantan. Thus I have asked to meet Siemens, to which they have responded well.”

+++++

SIEMENS CORE VALUES

Our Values - responsible, excellent and innovative - have been the basis for Siemens' success for over 160 years.

Responsible: Committed to ethical and responsible actions

Excellent: Achieving high performance and excellent results

Innovative: Being innovative to create sustainable value

At Siemens, we are determined to meet – and wherever possible, exceed – all legal and ethical requirements. Our responsibility is to conduct all business according to the highest professional and ethical standards and practices:

there must be no tolerance for non-compliant behavior.

The principles related to "Responsible" serve as the compass by which we navigate our way through our business decisions. We must alsoencourage business partners, suppliers and other stakeholders to adopt a similar standard of ethical behavior.

Siemens boast of a slogan that they live by

WE SAY IT, WE MEAN IT.

REALLY?

MORE HERE