Licensed To Rape Our Environment?

This afternoon I was informed of some land burning again. The thick smoke filled up part of the sky, making me wonder whether this was another land burning with a licence.

I grabbed the opportunity to snap the ugly scene for sharing with my readers.

Ugly Raping Of Our Environment

It was such a big scale of open burning that the thick smoke took up half of the sky of Sibu. It took place this afternoon from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m. amidst the heavily publicised love environment campaign by Sibu Municipal Council.

All the best to "Love Earth Day" on April 25 (Saturday) at Sibu Town Square.

Earth Hour 2009 - How Did Sibu Do?

Sibu Gateway before the lights were off.

Sibu Gateway observed the hour with solemnity.

Paramount Hotel and Wisma Sanyan before the lights were switched off.

Premier Hotel at 8:15 p.m.

Paramount Hotel and Wisma Sanyan sank with Sibu into darkness during the hour.

Sibu was not too far behind in this environment awareness campaign which took the whole world to join in to switch off lights for 60 minutes on March 28 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. as a manifestation of our concern for the worsening climate change.

This year was the first time Sibu standing hand in hand with the rest of the world to observe this hour of solemnity.

You may twit about the campaign, saying iy is just a publicity stunt. But never underestimate the power of such environment conservation movement.

SMC was the driving force behind to get Sibu into Earth Hour 2009. But for it to gather greater momentum, more thoughtful planning might help.

Much as I wished to snap some photos of the splendid dim hour of Sibu, I couldn't make it as I was with my family for a gathering.

Meng Lei was keen enough to arm himself with his sophisticated camera and hopped around to shoot the historic moments.

The shots of Earth Hour in Sibu were fine and fascinating, giving very contrasting views of the town during and before the hour.

The last photo shows Premier Hotel at 8:30 p.m.

(Photos: Meng Lei)

Earth Hour 2009

Sibu sank into darkness on March 28 for one hour from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. together with 4,000 cities worldwide in an environment awareness campaign known as Earth Hour.

A brainchild of WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour has grown from a single event to a global movement aiming primarily to raise awareness of the worrisome climate change.

Earth Hour is certainly meaningful in that it is an awareness movement on an issue that is pertinent to everybody. As such, it deserves a global observance.

In fact, environment concern is now a duty of all mankind, although a lot of us are still unaware of the implications of it.

Sibu Municipal Council, in its show of support for the movement, called on Sibuians to observe this hour of darkness by switching off nonessential lightings.

Hoteliers and complex owners were called to a briefing at the Mayor's office on March 27 at 4:30 p.m. This co-ordination move by SMC was praiseworthy, albeit coming in a rush at the last minute.

Premier Hotel responded with switch-off or dimming of nonessential lightings on the exterior of the building to show our deep concern for the environment.

The photos show the landmark St. Stephens tower of the Houses of Parliament in Central London during Earth Hour.

Environmental Rapes

Rapes of the Malaysian environmental ecosystems have been happening over the years.

There are wide fears that this sort of woe is going to impact our country's ecotourism adversely.

Worrisome rapes on our marine, island archipelagoes, mangroves, wetlands, lowland and forests have negative effects on tourist arrivals.

Notable concerns are mostly spotted in the tourist destinations in west Malaysia. But Sarawak is not spared of this nature of environmental rapes.

Take the example of our mighty Rajang River which otherwise would be a tourist potential if not because of its polluted conditions.

All developments certainly have a cost factor to involve. But with some thoughtful planning in environmental protection and conservation, costs could be minimised to the absolute advantage of the nation.

Pollution and environmental rapes are costly, socially and economically speaking. Laxity in enforcement could cost the nation to pay a heavy price for it. Malaysia has countless of cases on record of envitonmental rapes involving huge hidden and opportunity costs.

We may lose out to our competitors in tourism if our tourist potentials continue to be raped environmentally.

The above three pictures were taken in Sibu on July 5 late afternoon. The scene was quite terrific as the thick smoke engulfed the sky. I don't know for sure the source and purpose of burning. Since there was no news of fire outbreak, so the smoke could be from some kind of land clearing. If that was the case, then the act was quite environment unfriendly.

Maybe this is the price we have to pay for developments. What do you reckon?