Category: Environment

Insiden Pencemaran Sungai Kim Kim Dikhuatiri Berulang

Walaupun peris­tiwa pencemaran Sungai Kim Kim sudah setahun berlalu, situasi hampir sama berlaku di sebatang sungai berhampiran kawasan kejadian sekali gus me­ngundang kebimbangan penduduk Kampung Sungai Rinting C, di sini.

Para penduduk kampung tersebut dan kawasan sekitar mendakwa mereka menjadi mangsa terbaharu pencemaran alam sekitar yang berpunca dari­pada pembuangan sisa kimia­ dari sebuah kilang.

Tinjauan Utusan Malaysia mendapati, pencemaran udara tersebut datang dari sebuah tapak pembuangan sampah haram yang jaraknya hanya kira-kira 80 meter dari rumah penduduk.

Salah seorang penduduk, Khanafi Sudin, 39, berkata, keadaan hampir sama seperti kejadian Sungai Kim Kim berlaku apabila dia kini berasa pening dan seakan-akan mahu demam kerana menghidu bau sisa pencemaran dari kawasan pembuangan sampah haram berkenaan.

“Ketika penduduk melakukan pemeriksaan di tapak pelupusan sampah haram tersebut, mereka menjumpai pelbagai bekas dipercayai berisi bahan kimia.

“Sebahagian sisa buangan itu mengeluarkan asap dan baunya sangat busuk seperti asid sehinggakan penduduk berdekatan terpaksa menutup pintu dan tingkap mereka,” katanya ketika ditemui di sini semalam.

Tambahnya, sebelum ini, pasukan bomba pernah datang melakukan pemeriksaan dan memusnahkan bahan kimia tersebut tetapi perbuatan membuang sisa berbahaya terus berlaku di kawasan berkenaan.

Sementara itu, seorang lagi penduduk, Zainal Abidin, 31, pula memberitahu, lori yang membuang sisa kimia berkenaan kebiasaannya datang pada waktu malam untuk mengelak dikesan penduduk.

“Aduan sudah dilakukan kepada pihak berwajib kerana kami bimbang masalah yang lebih besar boleh berlaku kerana terdapat sebuah sekolah di kawasan berhampiran,” ujarnya.

Sementara itu, Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Permas, Datuk Seri Che Zakaria Mohd Salleh berkata, perkara tersebut akan dilaporkan kepada Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS) negeri, Majlis Perbandaran Pasir Gudang (MPGG), Pejabat Tanah dan Galian serta Kementerian Kesihatan.

Beliau tidak mahu kejadian Sungai Kim Kim berulang sehingga memberi kesan buruk kepada penduduk.

“Tindakan segera perlu diambil termasuk menyiasat dari mana sisa buangan tersebut datang kerana ia sangat berbahaya. Ini ekoran kedudukan tapak pembuangan sampah haram begitu hampir dengan penempatan penduduk dan Sungai Rinting,” katanya. –{Utusan Digital]

Tanah Mendap Jalan Maharajalela ‘Telan’ Myvi Kuning

Keadaan Perodua Myvi yang terperosok ke dalam lubang akibat tanah mendap di Jalan Maharajalela malam tadi.(Gambar ihsan Sinar Harian)

(Sinar Harian) – KUALA LUMPUR – Seorang wanita mengalami detik cemas apabila kereta dipandunya terperosok di laluan yang tiba-tiba mendap di Jalan Maharajalela di sini lewat malam tadi.

Ketua Jabatan Siasatan dan Penguatkuasaan Trafik Kuala Lumpur, Asisten Komisioner Zulkefly Yahya berkata, kejadian berlaku pada jam 11.35 malam melibatkan sebuah kereta Perodua Myvi.

Menurutnya, ketika kejadian mangsa seorang pekerja swasta berusia 42 tahun yang beralamat di Kuala Berang, Terengganu memandu kereta itu bersendirian.

“Siasatan awal mendapati berlaku satu kejadian tanah mendap berkeluasan sekitar tiga meter persegi di Jalan Maharajalela menghala ke Jalan Loke Yew.

“Insiden itu menyebabkan kereta dipandu mangsa terjatuh ke dalam lubang,” katanya.

Beliau berkata, pemandu wanita terbabit tidak mengalami sebarang kecederaan dan siasatan dijalankan di bawah Rule 10 LN166/59.

Menurutnya, kerja-kerja membaik pulih laluan yang mendap itu telah dilaksanakan Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) pagi tadi.

Disturbing Composite Photos Reimagine Ocean Pollution

Hundreds of thousands of marine animals — fish, reptiles, birds and mammals — die every year after ingesting or being entangled in garbage carried by ocean currents.

Portuguese artist Paulo de Oliveira’s shocking composite images of animals being strangled by discarded nets and gorging on plastic rubbish serve as a stark warning of the damage caused by human waste.

In his series, a baby seal lion swims with a fishing net around its neck, a turtle munches on a coffee cup, a whale shark consumes plastic bags and a fish eats the remnants of a plastic lid while swimming through a sea of garbage.

De Oliveira, a 64-year-old former advertising executive turned professional diver and photographer, said: “I created these composite images to illustrate the amount of plastic garbage polluting our oceans. I wanted to make people understand the enormity of this environmental attack and how it affects the entire marine food chain. It is a theme that needs strong images that one often cannot capture directly in nature with the necessary quality.

“Nothing that can be seen in these images is unrealistic fantasies, though. All this happens every day in some parts of the oceans. It has already been witnessed by me and by many people but, except for honorable exceptions, it has not been directly portrayed in nature with force that I have tried to present in these compositions. In general, people respond well to images even when they know they have not been captured directly in nature. As I worked in advertising, I see this technique as just another tool that allows me to express my creativity.” (Caters News)

A sea turtle eats a styrofoam cup. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage drift through oceans driven by wind and currents. (Composite photograph by Paulo de Oliveira/ARDEA/Caters News)
A titan triggerfish, Balistoides viridescens, eats a plastic object. A lot of sea animals ingest plastic garbage because they think its edible food. (Photo: Paulo Di Oliviera/ARDEA/Caters News)
A sea turtle eats a plastic detergent bottle. Plastic bags and other rotting plastic trash drift through oceans driven by wind and ocean currents. (Photo: Paulo Di Oliviera/ARDEA/Caters News)
A cotton swab is seen inside a comb jelly. This transparent animal, a planktonic predator, feeds mostly on other comb jellies that are pulled into its large mouth and swallowed whole. (Photo: Paulo Di Oliviera/ARDEA/Caters News)
A Pacific hermit crab, coenobita compressus, crawls wearing a lid of a plastic bottle as a shell. The hermit crabs uses empty shells to protect the soft part of its abdomen and make it inaccessible to predators. (Photo: Paulo Di Oliviera/ARDEA/Caters News)
A young northern fur seal, callorhinus ursinus, tangled in a nylon rope, grimly drags a string of nets, cables, and fishing wires behind her. (Photo: Paulo Di Oliviera/ARDEA/Caters News)

Extraordinary Images of Some of the World’s Most Endangered Animals

Flach has constructed a powerful visual record of remarkable animals and ecosystems facing harsh challenges. (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)

[Yahoo! News}- Featuring animals from all around the world, Tim Flach’s latest book ‘endangered’ explores habitats on nearly every continent.

Often, Flach explores the close relationship between animals and humans, and in particular how humanity imposes and reveals its ideals when trying to understand and work with animals.

‘I feel this is the most complete book I have done and I feel very privileged to have done it,’ he said. ‘I do recall a photographer colleague of mine saying one never finishes a book one is only separated from it.

‘I wanted to draw out the character of my subjects. Clearly to do that with a bee or a tree frog eggs demanded an intimacy that can only be arrived at by a magnification, in this particular case times five, thereby showing detail that would not normally be visible with the naked eye.

‘Probably the most dramatic area [when putting together the book] was diving off the Galapagos islands while photographing Hammerhead sharks from 30m down. As a not highly experienced diver, the challenges of high currents and camera with underwater housing was a little bit stressful.

‘My next project is birds,’ he continued. ‘I want to photograph some of the most glamorous, beautiful birds – Birds of prey, Golden Pheasants, Bantoms and Macaws to celebrate the wonderment of birds.’

His other books include Equus, Dogs, Gods and More Than Human. Endangered is his fourth, and most ambitious, book.

Please click the pictures for larger images:

Flach has constructed a powerful visual record of remarkable animals and ecosystems facing harsh challenges. (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)
Tim travelled between forests to savannahs to the polar seas to the great coral reefs to complete the book. (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)
Tim Flach studied fine art at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design. He emerged with a fascination for photography which has since led to numerous commissions, awards, solo exhibitions, and a presence in permanent collections and publications around the world. (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)
Endangered unfolds as a series of vivid interconnected stories that pose gripping moral dilemmas, unforgettably expressed by more than 180 of Flach’s incredible images. (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)
The book took two years to put together, with six months of research first. (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)
Flach said: ‘I feel this is the most complete book I have done and I feel very privileged to have done it.’ (Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim Flach)

Photos: Palm Trees Covered in Snow in Florida The Sunshine State!

Ahead of the approaching “winter hurricane” about to hit most of the U.S. East Coast, Floridians woke up Wednesday morning to something that’s very rare in the Sunshine State.
Photo credit to Yahoo! News

Winter Storm Grayton brought rare snow to parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

The city of Tallahassee in North Florida which hasn’t witnessed snow for 29 years, shocked the people with its first snow in nearly three decades.

While Orlando is expected to snow soon, and Miami still remains raining.

Please click the photos for larger images.

Photo credit to CNN
A thin layer of ice covers ornamental plants Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, in Plant City, Fla. Temperatures in central Florida dipped to below freezing. Growers spray water on the plants to help protect them from extreme cold temperatures. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Photo credit to WSB-TV
PHOTO: Icicles hang from the ‘Welcome to Hilliard sign’ in Hilliard, Fla., Jan. 3, 2018. (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union via AP)
Photo credit to Tallahassee Airport’s Twitter Page
Photo credit to Mike’s Weather Page on Twitter
Photo credit to AlexField on Instagram
Snow hits Florida for first time in 29 years Photo credit to Yahoo! News
Ahead of the approaching “winter hurricane” about to hit most of the U.S. East Coast, Floridians woke up Wednesday morning to something that’s very rare in the Sunshine State. Photo credit to Yahoo! News

Gambar: Banjir Besar Melanda Pulau Pinang

Sebuah projek perumahan mewah di lereng bukit, Beverly Hills, di Tanjung Bungah di sini terjejas teruk dengan sebahagian binaannya runtuh akibat hujan lebat malam tadi. Nov. 5, 2017. Gambar The Star.

Hujan lebat dan angin kencang telah melanda Pulau Pinang semalam menyebabkan banjir, pokok tumbang dan tanah runtuh  di Georgetown dan Seberang Perai.

Keadaan bertambah buruk akibat peningkatan paras air di sungai utama di negeri itu seperti Sungai Pinang, Sungai Air Itam dan Sungai Dondang mencecah paras bahaya dengan masing-masing mencecah 2.83 meter, 6.58 meter dan 21.88 meter..

Menurut Berita Harian, di Georgetown, antara kawasan terjejas termasuk Kampung Masjid, Jalan P Ramlee, Sungai Pinang, Jalan Kebun Lama, Lebuh Carnovan, Jalan Anson dan Halaman Bukit Gambir.

Manakala antara kawasan terjejas di Seberang Perai ialah Taman Siakap, Permatang Rawa, Taman Senangin, Padang Lalang, Mak Mandin dan beberapa kawasan di Penanti.

Utusan Online melaporkan beberapa buah bot dan sampan nelayan di Teluk Bahang di sini dilaporkan rosak dan terdampar di daratan selepas ditolak ribut serta angin kencang dalam kejadian awal pagi tadi.

Sebuah feri milik Penang Port Sdn. Bhd. (Penang Port) turut dilaporkan rosak selepas ditolak ombak kuat dan melanggar bahagian jeti di Terminal Feri Raja Tun Uda, Butterworth di sini.

Pada 21 Oktober 2017, tragedi tanah runtuh di tapak pembinaan di Lengkok Lembah Permai, Tanjung Bungah telah mengorbankan 11 orang pekerja.

Sila tekan imej untuk memperbesarkan gambar:

The Environmental Photographer Of The Year Awards – The Winners

The winner have been announced for the Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer Of The Year Awards 2016. 

Recognising exceptional skill behind the lens, as well as the ability to capture an issue hanging over Planet Earth in a single frame, winners have been crowned in five categories, and a number of pictures were given special commendations.

The overall winner was Swedish photographer Sara Lindstrom, whose epic image of the Alberta wildfire particularly impressed the judging panel. 

Beirut’s River of Trash: What Can We Learn From It?

A view of the built up pile of waste on a street in Beirut's northern suburb of Jdeideh
A view of the built up pile of waste on a street in Beirut’s northern suburb of Jdeideh

A river of trash?

Yes, there is a ‘river of trash’ in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

It is amazing to see trash arranged in a line like a river for miles through the city.

This was caused due to the closing of the country’s landfill in July 2015.

I think due to the political deadlock in Lebanon, its government is unable to function properly and that had caused lots of trouble for its people.

Due to the political crisis in Lebanon, the country has yet to elect a new president after the previous president, Michel Suleiman resigned on May 2014.

Al Jazeera, in its article, ‘What’s to become of Lebanon?’ reported that:

“But the Lebanese are a divided people, and that is a major cause for trepidation,” – Al Jazeera

That is what happened when its people are too divided and failed to work together in order to build a stronger nation.

Now protests were held in Beirut regarding the trash problems that injured hundreds of people including the police.

My question is, can protests solve this problem?

Some people see this as their human right, the right to make street protest when they are not happy.

But instead of going to the streets to protest, it is better if the people of Lebanon be united and make sure that they have a strong government that can take care of them.

This can happen anywhere in the world, including in Malaysia if our government is unable to function properly due to political instability.

Our government needs to solve problems that are actually created by people who are against the government instead of solving the real problems faced by our country, and this can bring us to destruction and cause chaos to Malaysia.

That is why we must be careful or we too will be facing problems like the people of Lebanon, or even worst like what happened to the people of Libya, Egypt and others.

Political differences must not be the reason to destroy our country, for if that happened it is the people who will be suffering.

Photos: Southeast US December Tornadoes Killed 14

Debris is seen after a powerful tornado struck Clarksdale, Mississippi, December 24, 2015. REUTERS/Justin A. Shaw
Debris is seen after a powerful tornado struck Clarksdale, Mississippi, December 24, 2015. REUTERS/Justin A. Shaw

An unusual outbreak of December tornadoes caused by an unseasonably warm weather hit the Southeast of America from Arkansas to Michigan, killing at least 14 people in three states on Wednesday.

Dozens more were injured, and the authorities are still searching for people that are still missing.

Authorities confirmed seven deaths in Mississippi, six in Tennessee and one person in Arkansas.

Vehicles and debris scattered around the land after the massive disaster which flattened houses and trees.

Last year, tornadoes hit Mississippi, killing five and injuring dozens more.

AP reported that storms continued marching east on Thursday, dumping torrential rain that flooded roads in Alabama and caused a mudslide in the mountains of Georgia.

Please click the photos for larger images:

Aftermath Photos Of Magnitude 7.8 Nepal Earthquake, Almost 2000 Killed

A building stands damaged after an earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, April 25, 2015. A strong magnitude-7.9 earthquake shook Nepal's capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley before noon Saturday, causing extensive damage with toppled walls and collapsed buildings, officials said. (AP Photo/ Niranjan Shrestha)
A building stands damaged after an earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, April 25, 2015. A strong magnitude-7.9 earthquake shook Nepal’s capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley before noon Saturday, causing extensive damage with toppled walls and collapsed buildings, officials said. (AP Photo/ Niranjan Shrestha)

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday killing nearly 2000 people.

More than 700 people died in Kathmandu alone.

The Saturday earthquake was the worst earthquake in Nepal since the 1934 earthquake that killed about 8500 people.

The death toll from the earthquake might rise as the situation in the remote area is unclear because those places are either cut off or hard to access.

The earthquake sparked avalanches in the Mount Everest that killed at least seventeen people; which is the mountain’s worst disaster.

A strong aftershock with a magnitude of 6.7, centred 60km (40 miles) east of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on Sunday sending people running for open ground in the city.

Here are some photos of the aftermath…

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