Farewell

When the leaves have fallen on the ground,

The bees and birds go round and round,

Nowhere to go, nowhere to stay,

How can the Squirrels go out and play?

A trickle of water is hard to find,

Food is scarce, everyone's losing their mind,

the polar caps are melting,

Islands are sinking,

When the heat is so strong,

What else can go wrong?

Earthquakes, Tsunamis and volcanoes have erupted,

Millions of lives have been disrupted,

Mothers panic, children cry,

All fathers just mutter, "goodbye"

In a second, all living things die, 

Sad isn't it? Makes you want to sigh. 

Well it's that time of the year,

Where all of  us, each one of us here,

Has to say goodbye to all of you,

Cause this is the end of us -PU2. 

But don't worry, MS Youth will still continue,

To entertain and spread the words to you,

Our time is up, but we've all had fun,

But like they say, "all is said and done",

We hope we had inspired you to help save the earth,

Everything we conducted, hope had its worth,

Because if we don't start now, what will happen to the future?

The answer is simple: It will be a disaster. 

That's right, so go out there and plant some trees,

Let them grow; spread those leaves,

Turn off that unwanted electricity,

If you're not using your computer, lights or TV,

Don't pollute your environment, alright,

It's just uncomfortable to look at a nasty sight,

We apologise if we had done something wrong,

Well, this is it, farewell, So long! 

Best of Luck on your exams, everyone! 

Ms Youth. 

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir & Batin

Best Wishes,

Ms Youth =)

Will Polar Bears Be OK?

Courtesy of Newsweek

How to talk to kids worried about global warming.



Sean Hussey and his twin sister, Erin, are only 9 years old, but they already know all about global warming. And they're worried, very worried. Teachers at their Hillsborough, Calif., school have shown them pictures of melting glaciers. Sean fears that polar bears will be left homeless. "I like polar bears a lot," he explains. Erin is also concerned about what she calls "the animal side" of climate change. "There are lots of animals that shouldn't die," she says. "The humans are the ones who are causing it." Their mother, Pam Hussey, is worried, too, and not just about global warming. She doesn't want her twins to think they're on the edge of disaster. Hussey tells them they can make things better by using less energy. "We are not doomed to failure," she tells them. "Every kid needs hope."

With so much attention focused on potential devastation from climate change, it's not surprising that the message has reached the planet's youngest residents. Images of liquefying glaciers in movies like "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown" are as frightening to these kids as pictures of a mushroom cloud were to youngsters growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. Remembering their own childhood fears of nuclear annihilation, parents struggle to find a balance between scaring young kids to death and helping them understand a very real problem that they will inherit someday. (A recent poll by a supermarket chain found that 15 percent of British kids blame their parents for the crisis.) "What they need is the truth," says environmental activist Laurie David, author of a upcoming children's book called "The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming." "And then they need solutions." Here's some advice from experts on how to send a message that will encourage youngsters without provoking needless anxiety.

Assure them that they are safe. Before anything else, parents need to provide support and nurturing, says child psychiatrist Elizabeth Berger, author of "Raising Kids with Character." "If the child is anxious, then you offer your lap and say, 'Don't worry, honey, the grown-ups who are supposed to be dealing with it are going to deal with it." Berger's own daughter once came home from elementary school terrified about the hole in the ozone. "Young kids can be very concrete," Berger says. "When you say there's a hole in the ozone, that's like saying there's a hole in the basement." When they're worried about polar bears dying, they may be thinking about whether that means their mom or dad will die, too. "You want to minimize the worry," Berger says.

Turn off the TV. "What scares kids are these horrible images of bad weather ... like Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami and all the tornadoes and that sort of thing, which seem to be part of global warming," says psychologist Joanne Cantor, a professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin and author of "Teddy's TV Troubles," a children's book about dealing with frightening media. Television makes it worse by constantly replaying scary images of houses washing away. Children under 7 "don't really understand the concept of videotape and that it's not happening over and over again," says Cantor.

Explain the time frame. Parents should make clear that global warming is a "very slow" process, says Lawrence Balter, a professor of applied psychology at New York University and author of "Dr. Balter's Child Sense." "It's very different from a cataclysmic event, like an explosion," he says. "There's an opportunity for us to learn about how it works and an opportunity to see if we can do something about it."

Teach them to help. Kids are reassured if they can take action. Emphasize that doom is not inevitable. "Participating in some activity makes you feel like you're part of the solution and less of a victim," Balter says. That strategy has worked for the Tjoelker family in Bryan, Texas. Mark Tjoelker, a forest ecologist who studies global change, discusses scientific news at dinner with his kids, ages 10, 7 and 2. The family motto: reuse, reduce, recycle. To do their part, the older kids walk a half mile to school. "I say, 'I'm not going to drive you. That burns fossil fuels'," says their mother, Elaine. They're doing their part to turn things around, one small step at a time.

It's Hip To Be Green

Courtesy of Newsweek



Just before the first amplified chords of Guster's hit single "Satellite" filled the hall, lead singer Ryan Miller stepped up to the mike. Instead of belting out a song or urging the audience to buy the band's latest CD, he encouraged them to pick up a free pamphlet on the environment. "I don't want to get all preachy," said the slight, scraggly-bearded musician, 34, "but if one out of 10 of you did it, it would make a difference." Then it was back to the music.

For the last year and a half, Guster, a popular indie rock band, has been on a mission to spread green wisdom to its fans along with its music. On each of their stops, band members invite their audiences—mostly undergrads who turn out for their Campus Consciousness Tour—into their bus, where they tout the benefits of biodiesel, show off their biodegradable tableware (made from corn and potatoes), explain that they use only rechargeable batteries onstage and soy ink in their liner notes, and urge fans to buy carbon credits to offset their car rides to the concert. "We don't want to be soapboxy, because that could backfire," says guitarist and vocalist Adam Gardner. "But it's something we just want to make available to people. And if they're not interested, then here's the next song."

There's no question that young people have woken up to the realities of global warming. A new poll from Gallup shows that 44 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 believe we need to take "immediate, drastic" action on the environment, compared with 38 percent of those between the ages of 35 and 54, and 33 percent of those 55 and older. A higher percentage of young people also say they understand global warming well and believe it results from human activities as opposed to natural changes in the environment.

Reared on MTV, YouTube and celebrity magazines, young people are attacking the environmental movement with a different strategy than those who became politically active in the 1970s. Speth says the approach is a more subtle one. Some call it "light green." Rather than boycotting companies and organizing violent demonstrations, many activists are marshaling savvy marketing and technology skills in order to attract a wider, more diverse group of people to the cause. "We're hopefully trying to move the conversation into the mainstream," says Lauren Sullivan, who, with her husband, Guster's Gardner, founded Reverb, an organization that helps musicians like Sheryl Crow and Barenaked Ladies make their tours more green. The group sets up tents before each show, where audiences can meet representatives from local environmental groups and sample organic products.

Danny Seo, 29, a pioneer in the field of eco-living, says, "For a long time I think people have been saying you gotta go green because it's good for you, because it's good for the planet. But no one wants to do that for that reason alone. You have to make it affordable and stylish and exciting, because at the end of the day, that's what good marketing is."

Some are critical of this softer approach. Fred Meyerson, a professor of demography, ecology and environmental policy at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, says that many groups have started to shy away from important environmental issues like population control because they've deemed them too contentious. "They don't really push the envelope the way people did in the '70s and '80s." And, whatever the approach, even the most optimistic of Gen-Xers aren't convinced that environmentalism is here to stay. "We need to make sure this environment boom isn't just a two-year trendy thing, but that green becomes embedded in our culture," says Grist.org's Giller. No matter how it gets done.

Partner sought for Brunei solar panel plant

Debbie Too
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

HAMIDJOJO Development Sdn Bhd is in talks with a potential local partner for Brunei's proposed solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant tentatively scheduled to start operations by 2010.

The proponent of the solar panel plant, estimated to cost US$150 million ($212.3 million), is awaiting approval from the ministry concerned on the project itself and the land allocation in Lambak Kanan.

If everything goes on schedule, the site evaluation and groundbreaking ceremonies would be held at the end of the year and operations would start in the middle of 2010.

"In total, there will be enough jobs for 150 employees where we are estimating 50 per cent of the jobs to be taken up by foreigners and the other half by locals," said Joseph Sequeira, Hamidjojo Development project manager.

The business strategy and development company expects talks with the potential partner to be concluded by the end of this month, Sequeira said in an interview.

In the event Hamidjojo Development fails to get a local partner, the company may consider looking for a site in another country, he added.

The logistics requirements and research scope of the job have already been completed, Sequeira said, adding that the only thing left to do is to build the plant.

"With the rising oil and gas prices and the greenhouse effect being a concern, renewable energy sources is what everyone is talking about, and solar energy has reached its peak where people understand that solar energy can work and help the environment," he said.

He added that the idea initially came about because Hamidjojo Development wanted to develop a glass factory in Brunei which has an abundance of silica sand, a key ingredient in glass manufacturing.

However, due to the lack of available power and oil needed to support such a plant, the project was shelved.

"At the same time, there were some businessmen interested in solar panels, so we attended some seminars in Milan, and found that glass is needed to produce solar panels. If this plant comes into operation, Brunei will have one of the few factories in the world that produces solar panels," said Sequeira.

In earlier reports, Rubyanto Hamidjojo, CEO of Hamidjojo Development, said that the project could potentially take Brunei off its hydrocarbon addiction by 2015.

At the moment Brunei depends on oil to generate its yearly demand of around 600 megawatts of electricity, and future consumption is projected to be at 1,000 megawatts in around half a century.

The Brunei Times

Note: Good news for the environment and economy.

M.S.P.S.B.S.

The Final Result. Good work guys!

Chinese Air Pollution: Deadliest in World

China,the world's fastest growing economy, has earned another startling superlative: the highest annual incidence of premature deaths triggered by air pollution in the world, according to a new study.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report estimates that diseases triggered by indoor and outdoor air pollution kill 656,000 Chinese citizens each year, and polluted drinking water kills another 95,600.

"Air pollution is estimated to cause approximately two million premature deaths worldwide per year," said Michal Krzyzanowski, an air quality adviser at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

Damaging air pollutants include sulfur dioxide, particulate matter—a mixture of extremely small particles and water droplets—ozone, and nitrogen dioxide. China accounts for roughly one-third of the global total for these pollutants.

The combustion of fossil fuels—whether to power China's many automobiles, its burgeoning factories, or its expanding megacities—is a primary source of outdoor air pollutants.

The burning of coal or charcoal to heat homes, common throughout China, also produces a range of indoor air pollutants.

Exquisite Earth

Eek!

Numbers of the black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata)—which, like all lemur species, is found only on the African island of Madagascar—have dwindled as a result of predation and habitat loss.

Last week the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added several species and subspecies of primates, including the ruffed lemur, to the "critically endangered" category in its Red List of Threatened Species.

Teehee

Inspiration

Wonder if this man is interested in joining our club? giggle. 

Bring Your Own Bag

Some of the MS Youth members proudly showing off the reusable bags

Thank You MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT, for kindly sponsoring us these wonderful bags =) 

Plan to turn Sg Akar landfill into a park

Source: Brunei Times by Rasidah H A B. To view article from Brunei Times website click here.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

THE Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) is planning to close the Sg Akar landfill and turn it into a recreational park.

The board recently opened tenders for the design and construction of the systems and facilities for the closure and transformation of the 33 hectare rubbish dump site and for the operation and maintenance of the adjoining 20 hectare site as a transitional rubbish dump site for a period of up to five years.

Among the essential requirements to be met by the potential companies is that it must be a reputable local, international or joint venture company with relevant expertise in solid waste management and the engineered closure of solid waste dump sites.

The transformation project aims to rehabilitate the rubbish dump site and transform it into a green zone which can be used for recreational purposes, with landscaping, ponds, roads and other facilities.

The Sungai Akar landfill at the moment is operating at full capacity, and receives most of the 300 tonnes of waste per day produced in Brunei-Muara district. The current conventional dumping system is no longer appropriate to handle the waste.

Previously, The Brunei Times had reported residents' complaints that the rubbish landfill area is not only a persistent nuisance with foul smell and flies everywhere, but also poses serious environmental and health hazards.

The transformation of the rubbish dump site would require eradicating rodents, pests and the foul smell emanating from the site within the shortest period possible. The project also requires the implementation of an engineering system to remove contamination to ground and surface water.

The tender also calls for a facility for public education to promote awareness on the transformation of the dump site and the importance of solid waste management.


*Bahri: finally my prayers have been answered!*

Sungai Akar Dumpsite

Source from informative Mr. Brunei Resources' article here.

Not In My Backyard

I thought I will spend a bit of time on the rubbish dump problem that everyone is talking about nowadays. Sungai Akar Dump is interesting - not rubbish dump interesting but it makes a classic administrative failure case study.

The history of rubbish dumps in Brunei has always been where the municipal waste goes to. Once Brunei starts urbanising, that is when rubbish starts being created. Most of us who lived in the non city centre in the earlier days learnt how to deal with our rubbish earlier on which is mostly burning them. But in the municipal area, there are trucks and rubbish collectors who do the rubbish throwing for the residents. In the very early days, rubbish was dumped at Pusar Ulak being the first rubbish dump in Brunei. As Bandar grows bigger and encroached to Pusar Ulak, it was Batu 2 at Jalan Tutong where the second rubbish dump was created.

But even Batu 2 gets encroached by the enlarging Brunei Town, the third dump site was near where the City Hall is at the moment at Kumbang Pasang. Even that was found unsuitable before rubbish was dumped at Jalan Menteri Besar, next to where Ministry of Health is. Yup, that huge forest next to MOH was a former rubbish dump site. The forest has been thinned up now and there is a park built by the Environment Department on it. For a time before government agencies started to be built in the area, Jalan Menteri Besar was for a time known as Jalan Sampah. By the early 80s, that started to be too full and search went on for the fifth dump site.

And that's when Sungai Akar started. Sungai Akar was supposed to have closed down by the end of the 1990s and something to replace it. Sungai Akar was essentially a municipal dump site but by then, rubbish collectors sensing a business opportunity offered their services not just to rubbish inside the municipal area but also to the growing number of households outside it. More and more rubbish was collected and more and more are dumped into Sungai Akar. Everyone expects BSB Municipal Department to find a solution. But it is not their fault too. Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Department does not have the ability and by 2004, the newly created Environment, Parks and Recreation Department under the Ministry of Development was asked to take over.

It was only then studies are conducted and by this year under the new five year Development Plan, was the money available to do something about Sungai Akar. Finding a new dump site is not easy - it suffers from the NIMBY effect. Not in my backyard. Alternatives - incinerators etc. But ashes from incinerators need to be kept properly too and not to mention the gases it produces. There are other bio alternatives too. These also suffered from NIMBY effects and other side effects too. What is also important is to get everyone to save and to push the idea of recycling and reusing so that there will be less sampah by every citizen of this country.

Orang utans to be extinct in 50 years

 Don't you people care about us anymore?!!!!

 Don't you have any sympathy? Look at us!!

Sabah’s isolated orang utan population in lower Kinabatangan may become extinct in 50 years if no steps are taken urgently to set up wildlife corridor between fragmented forests.

Scientific journal Oryx in its latest publication said although the Kinabatangan population of 1,100 orang utans was more then enough for their survival but many of them were separated into small pockets of less then 250 animals.

It says much more work needs to be carried out to ensure the survival of the orang-utan. It also stresses that that the “pockets” of orang-utan population need a minimum number of 250 orang-utan individuals to survive in the long term.

“It is essential that conservation measures are taken to protect orang-utans outside national parks, and these measures will by necessity be specific to each region,” Oryx wrote in the newly released paper entitled “Distribution and conservation status of the orang-utan on Borneo and Sumatra: How many remain?”

Conservationists and scientists from 16 institutions, including Hutan, a French NGO, wrote the paper.

The Sabah Wildlife Department and Hutan have been studying orang-utan occurrence in protected and unprotected areas for a number of years.

Together with their partners they have engaged the landowners such as the Sabah Foundation, the Sabah Forestry Department as well as private landowners (mostly palm oil companies) in developing innovative conservation strategies to address the issue of orang-utans in unprotected areas.

Genetic modelling carried out by conservation geneticist Dr. Benoit Goossens of Cardiff University and Dr. Isabelle Lackman-Ancrenaz of HUTAN had shown that the majority of the isolated orang-utan populations in the Kinabatangan would go extinct in less than 50 years if nothing is done to reconnect the populations.

“Having ‘wildlife corridors’ linking isolated lots of forest that are home to orang-utan as well as other wildlife such as the Bornean pygmy elephants, are absolutely crucial to ensure that this wildlife continues to exist in the Kinabatangan,” said Dr Ancrenaz.

The paper also shows a study that reassessed orang-utan populations in Borneo and now finds that an estimated 75 percent of orang-utans in Kalimantan occur outside protected areas.

The Sabah Wildlife Department had in 2004 with HUTAN published a paper in the scientific journal, PLoS Biology that showed that 60 percent of orang-utans in Sabah live outside protected areas. The study was funded by the Danish International Development Agency (Danida).

It was a landmark paper for the world of orang-utan conservation as up to that point scientists in other areas of Borneo and Sumatra (the only two places in the world the orang-utan survive in the wild) were mostly studying and working on orang-utan populations within primary forests which were almost all protected areas, such as national parks.

Hutan has been working together with the Sabah Wildlife Department to develop and implement solutions to conserve the orang-utan in Sabah, Malaysia for the past 10 years.

Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming

A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming.

Almost half of the televisions sold around the globe so far this year have been plasma or LCD TVs.

But this boom could be coming at a huge environmental cost.

The gas, widely used in the manufacture of flat screen TVs, is estimated to be 17,000 times as powerful as carbon dioxide.

Ironically, NF3 is not covered by the Kyoto protocol as it was only produced in tiny amounts when the treaty was signed in 1997.

Levels of this gas in the atmosphere have not been measured, but scientists say it is a concern and are calling for it to be included in any future emissions cutting agreement.

Professor Michael Prather from the University of California has highlighted the issue in an article for the magazine New Scientist.

He has told ABC's The World Today program that output of the gas needs to be measured.

"One of my titles for this paper was Going Below Kyoto's Radar. It's the kind of gas that's made in huge amounts," he said.

"Not only is it not in the Kyoto Treaty but you don't even have to report it. That's the part that worries me."

He estimates 4,000 tons of NF3 will be produced in 2008 and that number is likely to double next year.

"We don't know what's emitted, but what they're producing every year dwarfs these giant coal-fired power plants that are like the biggest in the world," he said.

"And it dwarfs two of the Kyoto gases. So the real question we don't know is how much is escaping and getting out."

Dr Paul Fraser is the chief research scientist at the CSIRO's marine and atmospheric research centre, and an IPCC author.

He says without measuring the quantity of NF3 in the atmosphere it is unclear what impact it will have on the climate.

"We haven't observed it in the atmosphere. It's probably there in very low concentrations," he said.

"The key to whether it's a problem or not is how much is released to the atmosphere."

Relation To Global Food Crisis

There are many ways where environmental issues throughout the world can be related to the global food crisis:
- Oil is largely used in the transportation of food, thus the skyrocketing oil prices has contributed A LOT to the worldwide increase in food prices
- Oil is also used in the production, i.e. in fertilizers, as well as in the manufacturing of food
- Climate change is a major factor, reducing land that's available for cultivation and generating more weather disasters that wipe out food crops, and the amount of land that could be cultivated with food is finite
- Primary types of fishes farmed (sustainably) for food have decreased significantly due to climate change
- Et cetera…



It's not just that demand is getting bigger, but there are limits on how much it's possible to increase supply. Thus, food prices WILL soar continuously.

In five years' time, we could be living in a world where millions are dying in famines with no food aid to hand, regular storms and droughts wipe out acres of crops, and skyrocketing food prices have created global political panic, food experts say.

Food costs have shot upwards so quickly that even a consumer in a rich country who doesn't usually keep track of the price of bread will have noticed it. And anyone who counts the pennies has been feeling the pinch already, as global food prices have risen 83 percent over the last three years.

It puts the Western diet in question. Cutting down on inappropriate consumption of meat and dairy foods would be in everyone's interests. It's the least efficient kind of food production, and these are the foods that create health problems when people eat too much of them.

India and China's growth shows no sign of slowing, and the hunger for meat among their growing middle classes is a major factor in pushing grain prices up.

Now we’ve seen how the food crisis is intimately linked to energy factors as well as environmental issues... So, what happens if the world doesn't adapt, and food costs just keep on rising?

In the worst-case scenario, humanity will be struggling to cope with wars and deadly famines, new diseases, water shortages, and storms and droughts that wipe out crops. Oil will cost something like $200 a barrel, and there will probably be a global recession as food prices keep on rising.

Penguin Chicks Frozen By Global Warming??

At night, when the mercury dipped below freezing, the wet chicks froze.

"Many, many, many of them—thousands of them—were dying," Explorer Bowermaster said.

The experience, he added, painted a clear and grim picture of the impact of global climate change.

"It's not just melting ice," he said. "It's actually killing these cute little birds that are so popular in the movies."

The freezing of chicks is just one example of how human activity is endangering about two thirds of all penguin species, according to a new paper based on decades of research and observations.

The conservation biologist behind the paper, Dee Boersma of the University of Washington, points out some of the many ways penguins are suffering, such as by ingesting oil from spills, by being run over by tourists, by having their nesting times confused by climate change, and by losing their prey to changing currents.

Sad. 

CCA 3/7/08

Inspiration

ADRIAN GRENIER

"It's a daily, sort of eternal attempt to be aware," says Adrian Grenier (Entourage). "I try and turn off the lights as much as possible, I unplug all my appliances. I use eco-friendly light bulbs. I try and eat free-range, organic foods. I try to walk, if I can -- that's why I love New York, I take the trains. My home is a green home.

"I look at it as an investment: things may cost a little bit more, but ultimately it pays for itself, and then it gives you a little profit. People invest in all sorts of bizarre things, so why not invest in your quality of life and the environment?" 

BLAKE LIVELY 

"The CW has gone green, so we did a few public service announcements," says Blake Lively (Gossip Girl). "Afterward I felt hypocritical. I can't be telling people to go green and not do it myself, so I've been spending a few extra dollars on buying recycled paper towels and stuff like that. I plan to for our whole crew -- buy plastic mugs, so we don't have to use tons of plastic water bottles and try to [work] with the craft services people and have [reusable products] for everyone. It's important."

KELLY RUTHERFORD

"Our home that we're building has denim insulation, greywater system, solar pool and non-VOC paint," says the super green Kelly Rutherford (Gossip Girl). "We recycle. We go as far as saving our bottles at the house and then going to Whole Foods to redeem them. I'm like: 'Honey, this is a $1.50 for like 300 bottles.' He's like: 'We know it's going somewhere great.' So we do a lot. When we take food to go, we ask that they're not in aluminum because we know aluminum is the thing that's kind of top to recycle. And my son has an organic crib with an organic mattress and organic sheets. There's a great organization website called Healthy Child Healthy World and it's wonderful if you're a new parent. You know, you do as much as you can."

JAMES DENTON

"Besides voting Democrat?" ask James Denton (Desperate Housewives). "A car dealer gave me a very nice vehicle -- an SUV -- that they wanted me to try because 'm on Desperate Housewives. I took it, I drove it; it got 13 miles a gallon, emissions were very average. My wife and I sat down and made the decision to give it back -- a free $70,000 SUV -- and we bought a hybrid. That's a start. We're working on other ways. We have the energy-saving light bulbs in almost the whole house. But mainly the hybrids. We ditched the free car, which was very hard to do, but it's the least we can do."

To check out more on celebrities who go green, click here. 

M.S.P.S.B.S.

"MSPSBS"

UPDATE: PU2 MS Youth "Beautifying the school" Project.