Ask the average Malaysian to name the most luxurious hotel they can think of in Malaysia and you are likely to hear names of luxury chains like the Shangri-La or the Hilton group of hotels. Yet one hotel stands above the rest in the country as a name of luxury and befitting royalty (it was the official residence of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during the CHOGM 1999 meeting in Kuala Lumpur): the Carcosa Seri Negara. Even better, it’s situated in a quiet enclave right in the heart of the city: aptly demonstrating the fact that green surroundings are something that can be highly valued and exclusive.

Until it was turned into a hotel in 1989, the Carcosa and Seri Negara mansions were used to host many visiting dignitaries and, even further back, the residences of the British High Commissioners in Malaya and the guest house of the Governor of the Straits Settlements. It is fitting therefore that the greenery of the area has been well preserved and open for use by the public, albeit in a limited sense. Yes, the room rates at over RM 1,000 per night for Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, we saw this article which describes a coming meeting of more than 25,000 conservationists and policy makers to discuss the challenges of water around the world. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, two thirds of the world’s population will face water shortages by 2025 which is clearly a cause of concern for the entire world. To put this in perspective, current estimates place about 1.4 billion people are already living in conditions of water shortage (that’s about 20% of the world population) so things could get a lot worse.

Living in Malaysia, we still find it hard to imagine what a chronic water shortage is like because we don’t seem to have a problem with water (indeed, the flooding in the Klang Valley a few weeks ago seems to indicate that water shortage is one of the least of our problems). However, this report from the NPR, describes the problems with water shortage in the rural parts of northern China and clearly shows that, even though we hear about the great developments in the most populous nation on Earth, problems and disparities do exist and threaten to disrupt the order of things. Read the rest of this entry »

Any one of you readers who has children, or who can remember their childhood days, will appreciate just how hard it is to get the children to eat their vegetables. You can try facts - “vegetables are good for you” - and you know that effort is doomed to fail. You can try guilt - “think of all the other poor kids in the world who don’t have enough food to eat” - and you just know your child is going to be totally resistant to such tactics. In such circumstances, perhaps the only way to do it would be to try and use some innovative and cunning tactics to make the vegetables much more palatable to the children.

Here are some tips that we can suggest: Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve talked about some of the endangered species around the world and the charities that help them (the most famous of which is, of course, the Worldwide Fund for Nature). Nevertheless, we thought that it would be useful to put up an article here to highlight some of the world’s fauna that are the most deserving of our attention because they are already critically endangered; in fact, some of these species can no longer be seen in the wild and are restricted to highly restricted captive areas where they are essentially on life support. It may be too late for some of these species, but if we put our resources together, we might even be able to help some of them grow in numbers once again and be reintroduced into the ecosystem.

In our simplified list here, we note a few species that are already extinct in the wild. It’s definitely a short list and we would like our readers to note there are many other sources of this information available on the Internet but we thought we’d highlight a few for attention: Read the rest of this entry »

Work is becoming more individualized nowadays and with people sitting around in offices doing their “own thing” more often, it’s no wonder that corporate retreats are also becoming more popular in order to get people working as a team. However, we’ve seen that some corporate retreats are held in hotels and places like that in the city, so why not consider some green corporate retreats instead?

We know that corporate retreats out in nature can be quite popular where physical games are played in the name of team building. But we think that a little additional thought can add significant educational content on green issues too. Here are some suggestions for outings that will give back to the community and can help develop the team spirit too: Read the rest of this entry »

Although we’ve talked about sick building syndrome before and highlighted some ways to clean up the air in buildings to counter the problem of the cocktail of harmful chemicals and bacteria that can hang around in buildings, we thought that we should highlight the problem of mould separately. Living in the tropics as we Malaysians do with a hot and humid weather, mould is actually quite a problem that many never speak about and we think it deserves an article on its own.

Mould is caused by microscopic fungi that generally like to live in the warm and moist conditions found in the country, particularly in toilets and bathrooms that are almost constantly wet. You might recognize mouldy spots on the walls or tiles by the characteristic darker, or green colours, and you might think the only irritating thing about the mould is the way it makes your home look. However, moulds reproduce by releasing spores into the air and some of these spores can be extremely poisonous to humans; even though the number of spores in the air may be very small and won’t pose an immediate danger to your health, prolonged exposure can lead to chronic health problems. Read the rest of this entry »

Many people seem to think of coral as magnificent rock formations in the sea, and we’ve also heard people refer to coral as the forests of the sea. Both these views are incorrect as coral is neither rock nor plant life, but actually animals. In fact, each one of those majestic formations you see if you go scuba diving, or on television, is made up of thousands of little polyps only a few millimetres in diameter that lay down a characteristic skeleton over many generations. In short, these structures take an immense amount of time to build.

Which is what makes the current destruction of coral reefs so heartbreaking. Unfortunately, although coral reefs look like such huge and durable structures, the little polyps that make up coral reefs are quite fragile and sensitive to changes in things like the chemical composition of ocean water, or even to the temperature of ocean water. Humanity’s activities around the world has managed to change enough of this, both from direct effects thanks to a growing shipping trade and indirect effects from pollution, that coral reefs around the world are dying. Go to a beach near a coral reef nowadays and chances are you’ll find many bleached and dead coral branches washing up against the shore. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a lot that we can credit Kuala Lumpur for doing, having built what was once the tallest buildings in the world and developing at a rapid pace from what was once a small mining town at the confluence of two rivers into one of the most significant cities in Southeast Asia. Yet beneath the sheen and the veneer of the glass windows and shining metallic coats of the most advanced skyscrapers, lurks the disease of urban poverty that serves as a reminder of those who have been left behind in the race towards creating a developed nation and should really be of concern to every one of us.

It is said that urban poverty is one of the most crushing forms of poverty there can be – although we should add that poverty itself is a very undignified form of existence that every civilized nation should try to eradicate. We don’t have to look very far in Kuala Lumpur to find signs of urban poverty; although we probably need to look quite hard because many of us seem to have developed a blind spot to urban poverty. One place that we can think of is the Chow Kit area right in the heart of KL. Read the rest of this entry »