UPM’s Recycle to Cycle project ensures green commute

Some 7,000 bicycles within the campus of Universiti Pertanian Malaysia provide students with emission-free transportation. Photo: Coca-Cola Malaysia

A fun and unique project to encourage students to recycle and reduce carbon emissions has turned Universiti Pertanian Malaysia into a green campus with some 7,000 bicycles owned by students.

The Recycle to Cycle or R2C project, initiated in 2013, encourages students to recycle and at the same time, adopt a healthy and active lifestyle. Students participate by recycling empty PET bottles and aluminium cans, in exchange for the use of bicycles and safety helmets. Proceeds from the sale of the recyclable items are reinvested into the programme to make it sustainable.

To get things going in 2013, UPM received a US$250,000 grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation. The project has contributed to UPM’s efforts to become a green campus by helping to reduce the use of private motor vehicles and increasing the use of cycling lanes. The original fleet of 200 bicycles is still available for lease via the recycling mechanics, managed by UPM’s department of biology

The next phase of Recycle to Cycle will see recycling and emissions reduction efforts intensified with the launch of the Red Cube, an environmentally friendly building featuring a rainwater harvesting system that provides water that flows continuously over the roof to cool the building.

Other design elements that keep the building green include solar-powered lights, fans and exhaust vents for cooling, and windows that take advantage of natural air flows to encourage ventilation. Plants outside the windows further cool down the air. The building will be used as a student activity centre.

UPM has reduced the number of buses on campus and the existing ones are now powered by natural gas. Students are encourage to cycle and walk, and a special installment payment scheme has been introduced to help students own bicycles. UPM has also reorganised the students’ accommodation facilities so that they stay in colleges closer to their faculty. Covered walkways enable students to walk from their hostels to lecture halls. – Coca-Cola Malaysia

http://www.star2.com/living/living-environment/2015/11/30/a-green-commute-at-upm/

Plop, plop: A new look at poop

Source : The Star Online, 30th November 2015

By PHILIP HOARE

Most societies are averse to animal waste but in India, cow dung is widely used as cooking fuel. Photo: AFP

It is a logical result of extinction, so one wonders why no one bothered to do the sum before: What happened to the world when it lost the cumulative billions of tonnes of faeces produced by mammoths, sloths and whales?

A new study from the University of Vermont has shown that the planet has suffered two-fold from the removal of this biomass. Not only from the lack of diversity created by the extinctions of ancient megafauna and modern, human-induced depletions of many species – from seabirds to elephants, and whales – but from what they once did for our planet by spreading their poo around, redistributing nutrients and fertilising new growth.

“The past was a world of giants,” the new paper rhapsodises, evoking an Edenic world – albeit one full of poo. Dr Joe Roman, co-author of the study, says: “This once was a world that had 10 times more whales, 20 times more anadromous fish like salmon, double the number of seabirds, and 10 times more large herbivores like giant sloths and mastodons and mammoths … this broken global cycle may weaken ecosystem health, fisheries and agriculture.”

Remove all that guano and poo from the planet and you are left with a greatly reduced fertility. The scientists behind the study estimate that the capacity of land animals to spread nutrients has fallen to 8% below its value before 150 species of ice age mammals went extinct. Until now, it was thought that animals played a minor role in the process. But the new study indicates that they acted, en masse, as a “distribution pump”, fertilising new areas that would otherwise be unproductive.

The paper is a follow-up to one that appeared last year, also co-authored by Roman, which reported the ameliorating effect that whale faeces has on climate change, fixing carbon in the oceans by fertilising phytoplankton growth.

Last year’s scientific paper from the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Robert Rocha and others indicated that in the 20th century alone, nearly three million whales were killed. The removal of such a vast volume of biomass from the Earth’s environment has had an incalculable effect. As George Monbiot notes in his book Feral, sperm whales, the deepest diving of all whales, also stirred up nutrients from the ocean bed.

But the University of Vermont’s report also speaks to our philosophical attitude to faeces. Why do we spend billions to get rid of our waste – other than out of a strange hatred of our own bodily functions? Imagine what all those lost nutrients could do – not least in generating bio-responsible power.

Our modern disassociation from poo speaks volumes. In the past, human excrement was a vital part of the food chain, with “night soil” regularly used to feed the ground – and thus the plants that we, or our animals, ate. During the 19th century, the gathering of dog poo for the tanning industry was a specific trade, somewhat paradoxically known as pure finding.

Imagine, too, in a pre-combustion engine city the size of London, New York or Paris, the volume of horse manure being produced each day. Character-istically, the great horse manure crisis of 1894, when it was predicted that London’s streets would be overwhelmed by dung – was precipitated by the invention of chemical fertilisers, thereby creating a whole new set of problems for the environment.

Now we can barely bring ourselves to mention the subject. But without poo, we would be nothing. Funny how it takes mass extinction to remind us of that fact. – Guardian News Service

http://www.star2.com/living/living-environment/2015/11/30/a-new-look-at-poo/

Kerajaan sokong penggunaan sisa pepejal jana elektrik - Ongkili

Source : Berita Harian Online


Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili

KUALA LUMPUR: Kerajaan akan terus menyokong usaha penggunaan sisa pepejal bagi menghasilkan sumber tenaga boleh diperbaharui untuk menjana elektrik melalui konsep "Waste to Wealth". 

Menteri Tenaga, Teknologi Hijau dan Air, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili, berkata setakat ini penjanaan elektrik menggunakan sisa pepejal menyalurkan sebanyak tujuh megawatt tenaga elektrik. "Sebanyak 25.4 megawatt tenaga elektrik yang dihasilkan daripada sisa pepejal itu masih belum lagi boleh disalurkan kerana masih belum diluluskan.

 "Melalui kerjasama daripada semua pihak termasuk kementerian-kementerian yang berkaitan, kami menyokong penjanaan tenaga elektrik menggunakan sisa pepejal melalui konsep 'Waste to Wealth'," katanya. Ongkili berkata demikian ketika menjawab soalan tambahan Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (BN-Sabak Bernam) berkenaan usaha kerajaan memanfaatkan sisa pepejal untuk menjana kuasa elektrik, di Dewan Rakyat di sini, hari ini. 

Menjawab soalan tambahan Dr Tan Seng Giaw (DAP-Kepong) berkenaan peratusan tenaga boleh diperbaharui yang dimiliki oleh negara ini, Ongkili berkata setakat ini Malaysia mempunyai 14 peratus tenaga boleh diperbaharui. "Berikutan keputusan yang dibuat oleh Menteri-menteri Tenaga ASEAN pada bulan lalu, semua jenis hidro telah dikategorikan sebagai diperbaharui menjadikan jumlah peratusan sebanyak 14 peratus berbanding sebelum itu kira-kira enam peratus. 

"Sasaran Malaysia adalah mencapai status 23 peratus tenaga diperbaharui menjelang tahun 2025 dan kita yakin dengan usaha semua pihak dapat mencapai sasaran itu," katanya. - BERNAMA

http://www.bharian.com.my/node/99888

Earth in uncharted territory on global warming

By : Agency 

Source : The Stars Online 

Heating up: Smoke billowing from the chimneys of Belchatow Power Station in Poland, Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant. Burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil has led to rising levels of greenhouse gases. Photo: Reuters

Earth has heated up by 1°C, as greenhouse gases hit record levels just weeks before a crucial climate summit in Paris. Other reports forecast rising seas were set to swamp large swathes of New York and Shanghai, and that global warming would drive millions of people into poverty worldwide.

The slew of fresh planetary warnings came as ministers gathered in Paris to search for common ground on divisive issues ahead of the summit, which runs from Nov 30 to Dec 11.

If the planet heats up by 4°C – double the targeted United Nations ceiling – oceans will swallow land inhabited by more than 600 million people, said a study by Climate Central, a US-based research group. Even a two-degree jump would submerge land currently occupied by 280 million people, it said.

At the same time, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reported that the level of climate-altering gases in the air punched through the psychological barrier of 400 parts per million.

“Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are now reaching levels not seen on Earth for more than 800,000, maybe even one million years,” WMO chief Michel Jarraud said. “This means we are now really in uncharted territory for the human race.”

Britain’s Met Office said local mean surface temperatures were set to reach 1°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time – half-way to the 2°C threshold which scientists say humanity must not cross.

Environment and energy ministers in Paris are groping for convergence on issues dividing the 195 nations negotiating a climate rescue pact which must be inked at the upcoming summit. A World Bank study said there could be “more than 100 million additional people in poverty by 2030” unless action is taken to stem climate change.

The summit will be opened by some 100 heads of state and government, among them US President Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi of India, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. It is meant to produce the first truly universal pact to rein in climate change by curbing emissions from burning fossil fuel. It is also tasked with helping poor countries adapt to climate impacts already in the pipeline. Ministers are the ones who will ink the deal at the end.

For now, the draft agreement – prepared in advance by rank-and-file negotiators – remains little more than a laundry list of often directly opposing national options for dealing with the challenge at hand. Countries remain sharply divided on issues of fairness and finance. Developing countries insist rich ones should lead the way in slashing emissions as they have polluted for longer.

They also want assurances of finance to make the shift from cheap and abundant fossil fuel to greener energy sources, and to shore up defences against climate change-induced superstorms, drought, flood and sea-level rise. But industrialised countries point the finger at emerging giants such as China and India spewing carbon dioxide as they burn coal to power expanding populations and economies.

As the bickering continues, the UN issued a fresh warning that national carbon-curbing pledges submitted to date set the stage for warming of about 3°C, or more. – AFP

http://www.star2.com/living/living-environment/2015/11/16/earth-in-uncharted-territory-on-global-warming/

Pengasingan sisa pepejal diterima baik

Source : Berita Harian Online 


KETUA Setiausaha Kementerian Kesejahteraan Bandar, Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan, Datuk Mohammad Mentek merasmikan program Gotong-Royong Perdana dan Kempen Promosi Pengasingan Sisa Pepejal di Punca peringkat Kebangsaan 2015 di Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) Taman Mulia, Bandar Tun Razak, hari ini. - Foto Muhd Asyraf Sawal


KUALA LUMPUR: Pelaksanaan pengasingan sisa pepejal di punca yang dilaksanakan di tujuh negeri bermula 1 September lalu diterima baik oleh orang ramai apabila terdapat peningkatan tahap kesedaran terhadap program itu. 

Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian Kesejahteraan Bandar, Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan, Datuk Mohammad Mentek berkata sebanyak 268,329 kilogram (kg) barangan kitar semula dikutip di Kuala Lumpur/Putrajaya, Pahang, Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis dan Kedah, bermula 1 Sept hingga 11 Nov. 

Katanya, daripada jumlah itu 24,503 kg kutipannya adalah sisa plastik, yang juga kutipan tertinggi. Beliau berkata demikian ketika berucap merasmikan program Gotong-Royong Perdana dan Kempen Promosi Pengasingan Sisa Pepejal di Punca peringkat Kebangsaan 2015 di Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) Taman Mulia, Bandar Tun Razak di sini, hari ini. 

Program itu dianjurkan oleh Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp). Bermula 1 September lalu, isi rumah di tujuh negeri terbabit yang menerima pakai Akta Pengurusan Sisa Pepejal dan Pembersihan Awam (Akta 672) - diwajibkan mengasingkan sisa pepejal mengikut kategori seperti plastik, kertas, kadbod, kaca, besi dan sisa makanan. 

Seorang suri rumah, Siti Fatimah Ahmad, 53, berkata program yang diadakan hari ini memberi manfaat kepada penduduk untuk membantu mengurangkan pencemaran alam sekitar. Pengerusi Persatuan Penduduk PPR Taman Mulia, Mohd Feisal Abdul Manaf, 49, berkata setakat hari ini hampir 3,000 kg sisa pepejal berjaya dikumpulkan oleh penduduk kawasan tersebut. "Barangan itu dijual untuk tujuan kitaran semula," katanya. -- BERNAMA

http://www.bharian.com.my/node/97156