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Thursday, May 03, 2007
GLOBAL WARMING : BE WARNED
Today, the NST front-paged my favourite topic: global warming and its dreary consequences. And as a bonus, it carried two full pages of reports, with a promise of more articles in its Friday edition.
And BBC World also ran its reports.
You'd be alarmed to know that by the year 2025 (that's 18 years from now), global temperatures would have risen by 1 degree Celcius.
What would that mean, you ask? Well, our children would have to endure heatwaves, floods (worse than anything we've ever witnessed), drought, tropical storms, surges in sea levels etc, all more intense, more frequently.
Coastal land could be submerged, arable land would turn into dust bowls, food and water shortage would happen, with malnutrition and diseases in tow.
All this, with only an increase of 1 degree Celcius? What about if the increases were higher? Well, these would happen:
- if the temperature increases by 2.4 degree Celcius, coral reefs will become extinct
- by 3.4 degree Celcius, rainforests turn into deserts
- by 4.4 degree Celcius, ice caps melt and will displace millions of people
- by 5.4 degree Celcius, sea levels rise by 5 metres
- by 6.4 degree Celcius, life as we know it is exterminated
Bleak? Yes. Can we do something? You decide. All of us decide.
Today.
Meanwhile, the past week or so saw the following ...
A Ceiling Over Our Heads
Number One is hopping mad, and rightly so, over a series of ceiling collapses in new and relatively new government buildings. It does reflect very poorly on the maintenance culture, or the lack of it, in this country. What is it again -- first world facilities, third world mentality?
The Circus Left Town
Yup. The circus left Ijok. Everybody upped and left. All parties involved have to be congratulated and commended for putting up an entertaining show for a week or so. Now the circus has left, it’s up to the elected ADUN to pick up the pieces, and make good on his promises.
A Cry Over Spoilt Milk
I was on my way to work last week when a short news update was aired on a radio channel. The case of food poisoning at Sekolah Kebangsaan Kota Kuala Muda on Wednesday, April 25, said the announcer, was because of some “miscommunication” at the school.
I believe the radio announcer quoted Kedah Health Department Director Dr Hasnah Ismail, who was also quoted by The Star the following Friday as saying that the incident would not have happened had the school head followed the directive issued by the Education Ministry on April 18 asking all primary schools in Kedah and in the northern region to stop supplying milk to students pending investigations on two earlier similar cases.
The directive was Swarovski clear. “Do not distribute the milk pending investigations (agaknya)."
So, where did this “miscommunication” come in? Did the school head not read, nor understand?
People, we are moving towards smart schools.
Really.
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