In order to lower the carbon emissions that lead to global warming, Malaysia is considering the deployment of market-based carbon pricing policies such as carbon trading and a carbon tax. This paper, which is based on a memorandum submitted to the Malaysian government, presents a critical assessment of these policies …
Malaysia's new federal capital was unveiled recently by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed. The administrative nerve centre of the country will be known as Putrajaya after Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra. The futuristic metropolis will be built on 4,400 ha of land 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur …
A new device to detect the much feared AIDS virus, is now available in Malaysia. The test is done on the oral fluid of the suspected patient, instead of the usual procedure of testing the blood. This could be of help to children and people who object to have their …
The grandiose Bakun dam project (Down To Earth, Vol 3, No 4) in Borneo is once again in the thick of a mess of its own making. In late April, the Malaysian government's department of environment approved the first of the 3 parts of the dam's detailed environment impact assessment …
Malaysia has lifted a ban on the import of polypropylene and polyethylene, materials used in the plastics industry. The decision signals a temporary truce in its trade war with neighbouring Singapore, which claimed that its petrb- chemical industry had suf fered a blow because of the Malaysian move. The 2 …
The 3-part environmental impact assessment of the ambitious Bakun hydroelectric dam project has angered the Greens. In late February, Ekran Bhd, the company in charge of the project, announced that the assessment would be submitted in stages to Malaysia's Department of Environment by March-end. The first report regarding the reservoir …
Daimler-Benz, the epitome of swank cars, is now all set to enter the world of multimedia ventures, announced Edzard Reuter, the group's chairperson. Currently, Daimler-Benz is holding "exploratory" talks with the country's largest media conglomerates to work out a viable deal. The company is also preparing to launch a range …
Australia's new role as a protector of forests in the South Pacific is causing uneasiness in Malaysia. Trouble has been brewing since early August, when Australian prime minister Paul Keating accused Malaysian, South Korean and Indonesian logging companies of "ripping off" the island nations by paying too little for timber …
MALAYSIA's Pergau dam is once again in the news, much to the discomfiture of the British government. The latest blow is the British High Court's green signal to the World Development Movement -- a pressure group on Third World issues -- to apply for a judicial review of Britain's funding …
DOING business with Britain is not Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's cup of tea any longer. Following allegations in the British press that Mohamad had accepted a bribe from a British contractor, the prime minister has imposed tough trade sanctions against that country. In a move geared to send Britain's …
ECO-TOURISM has not won many supporters in Russia. Prominent Russian scientists have severely criticised government plans to encourage commercialisation of state-owned nature reserves, says a report in Nature. Among the proposed measures are admission charges for visitors and permission for hunting for a fee. Vadim Tihomirov, chairperson of the reserves …
IN THE first occurrence of its kind in a wild species, scientists report that fruit bats males (Dyacopterus spadiceus) occasionally lactate. Till now, this oddity was seen only in humans and domesticated animals (Nature, Vol 367, No 6465). Jennifer A Brunton and Thomas H Kunz of Boston University and their …
A MAJOR, Irangate-style controversy is building up over a L1 billion framework accord on military sales that is ostensibly linked to British aid in 1988 for the Pergau dam project in Malaysia. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has taken a dim view of Britain's aid policy and …
• Investors have been flocking to timber-based businesses in Malaysia, where timber related stocks are being traded at high prices. This is a result of a combination of strong timber prices and a comparative scarcity of timber-related listings on the Kuala Lumpur stock market. • Japanese electronics firms are looking …
MALAYSIAN authorities, still irked by the costly campaign they had to wage in the US to revive their palm oil export trade (Down To Earth, August 15, 1993), are livid because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington is being reported to require by the year-end that all latex-based …
MALAYSIAN exports of palm oil to the US are on the rebound. They shot up to 200,000 tonnes in 1992 -- double the 1989 level -- in the wake of a counter-offensive against propaganda that saturated fat from palm oil could induce heart failure. In 1987, the American Soyabean Association …
SLASH-and-burn cultivation immediately conjures images of destruction. One imagines vast areas of smouldering forest land dotted with burnt out tree stumps. But this method of farming, also known as swidden cultivation, is actually a sustainable form of forest agriculture. The technique of slash-and-burn cultivation has been practised by generations of …
BORNEO'S dense, virgin rainforests are interspersed with large, naked patches where trees have been plucked out by loggers. Meandering rivers such as the Baram that run through the forests have turned red with silt washed down from the now-barren hillsides. The government and the timber companies, however, blame tribal shifting …
AN ENVIRONMENTALLY safe, biotechnological toxin that kills mosquito larvae has been produced by the Centre for Biotechnology (CBT) at Anna University in Tamil Nadu. Named Biocide-S because it is produced from the Bacillus sphaericus bacterium, the pesticide has been successfully field-tested in a yearlong project at Kochi in Kerala. The …
Malaysia is gaining support to fight industrialised countries who are pressing for a ban on logging in the tropical rainforests. Its partners in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have supported its stand and agreed to dissuade other countries from following Austria's lead and imposing mandatory labelling on tropical …
A MALAYSIAN court has ordered the shutdown of a chemical plant in which Mitsubishi Kasei Corp, Japan's leading chemicals manufacturer, has a 35 per cent stake. The plant was accused of dumping radioactive wastes near a village in the state of Perak. The ruling evoked a strong response in Japan, …
