Published on February 25th, 2008
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Dear Readers,
Our goal this week was to help , bring you eye to eye with people of many nationalities to explore what environmental issues motivate each of us to care and inspire us to take action.
In case you missed it or are coming back for more, here’s our week in review:
Sam Aola Ooko offered a Kenyan perspective from the streets of Nairobi.
Pem Charnley reflected on the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the UK and its implications for the world and environment.
Mark Seall went to the Swiss Alps, wondering why the idea of personal responsibility for the environment is lacking, then to the streets of Switzerland for a taste of some real attitude.
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Published on February 23rd, 2008
Julie Chow: Environmentalism in Singapore | The first impression most people have when they think of Singapore is cleanliness. Hand-in-hand with the anti-gum-chewing rule, it is not an unfair assumption, given the island-city-state’s patriarchal government and tropical climate (palm trees and greenery cover the island in abundance.)
Here is something that might surprise you though: Singaporeans don’t recycle. Or if they do, it’s not as blatantly apparent as in the United States. Occasionally, you’ll see a receptacle on the street that is divvied up into plastics/metals, paper and waste, but for the most part, everything gets tossed into one big trash can. Trash shoots aren’t sorted into blue recyclables and black everything-else-goes here. I remember once during the summer, I was sorting trash while at work when my boss came up to me and asked what I was doing. Apparently it’s all just trash over there — nothing specific about it.
Lately, however, there has been a growing concern in the country, due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. Over recent months, the government has been giving the country a massive developmental face lift, introducing towering high-rise apartments and chicly designed shopping plazas to rival those of Paris, Tokyo and New York City. There are more plans to introduce casinos (”integrated resorts”) and a Formula One race track — all for the sake of drawing more tourists to Singapore and boosting the country’s economy.
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Published on January 15th, 2008
Some environmentalists see palm oil, which makes up about one third of all vegetable oil, as a biodiesel blessing. Others blame palm biodiesel for deforestation and species extinction. The pros and cons make biodiesel one of the hottest environmental topics in Southeast Asia, where oil palms grow.
Together, the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia and Malaysia control about 85% of the world’s crude palm oil market. In Indonesia, the biodiesel industry employs 1.5 million people and Malaysia has already approved 91 new biodiesel plants. Currently, about 30% of Malaysia’s total oil production is biodiesel from palm oil.
The pros of palm oil for use in biodiesel have drawn interest from the international business community. Finnish biodiesel mogul, Neste Oil, is working on opening the world’s largest biodiesel plant in Singapore using a palm oil feedstock. The plant is set to go online in 2009 with a production capacity of 800,000 metric tons per year of biodiesel–16,000 barrels, in oil terms. Neste is followed by many other companies, including Australian Mission Biofuels, which opened a new Malaysian plant in December and will produce 100,000 tons a year.
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