Written by Wild Asia on 22 May 2009 with 0 comments. Be the first!

Our homes are our sanctuary: a place to unwind, to spend time with family, to escape from the harsh outside world. They represent our well-being, our individuality, our identity. But our homes can also be one of the sources that contribute to the effects of global warming.

Where does our rubbish go?

Going about our daily lives, we leave a trail of waste in our wake. Some of our rubbish doesn't belong in the trash can...yet, while others can be transformed into other goods. Malaysia hasn't been very well-behaved when it comes to recycling bins; only a few of shopping malls had adopted recycling bins and even that we don't follow the rules. And our rubbish trucks do not enforce separation of trash. So it's up to us to make a difference. What can we do to reduce waste mountains?

Stop for a few seconds and think before you throw that crumpled up paper into the bin. Where would it go and what will happen to it? By the end of the day, our rubbish accumulates neck high. Then our Alam Flora or DBKL trucks will come and collect the trash, maybe daily or weekly, and haul them over to landfill areas. Our rubbish is gone from our sight, but the impact will linger into our future.

Landfill Dilemma

• Space: We are running out of space to deposit our waste. Daily, our waste accumulates to about 15, 000 tonnes which could fill up the Petronas Twin Towers in 9.6 days.
• Gas and chemical emissions: Landfill areas emit harmful gas such as methane into the air we breathe. Waste such as aerosol cans contribute to harmful emissions as well. Chemicals leaking from waste can also seep into our soil and contaminate our water sources.
• Hygiene: If the stench doesn't repel you, the creepy crawlers and vermin that live in landfills might. The crows that treat landfill areas as restaurants can transport rubbish and bacteria into town areas and affect local residents.

What Can You Do?

Recycle

• Recycling lengthens the life cycle of a product by reusing all or part of the product to make another product. By recycling, not only can we reduce our waste pile, but we are also keeping hazardous materials such as mercury and lead from being seeped into our soil and contaminating the environment.

Compost

• What is it? A soil-like material resulted from the process of decomposition of organic matter.
• Some waste is good waste. Organic matter such as tea bags, fruit peels can be used as compost. As long as it is not fried or contain protein (like fish or chicken) it's good as compost.
• Gather all your compost and haul them over to organic farms or use them for your own garden.

Our Energy Bar

Our natural resources are being exhausted as the race for technology and modernization propel human civilization into an environmental chaos. Even for Malaysia, as we depend so much on our oil reserves to keep our daily activities running from electricity to transport, our future looks bleak if we were to exploit our resources irresponsibly. Each time we use energy, the world's natural resources are being siphoned away by the seconds.

It is essential that we do what we can to limit our use of energy and incorporate energy efficient initiatives into our lives, be it at home or at work.

Peak Oil

Human civilization as we have come to know is heavily dependent on oil reserves. The problem with fossil fuels is that it is not renewable; there will come a time when we have exhausted our oil resources and it will take a great long time to reproduce. Then, there will be a great tendency that we will soon enter an era of drastic change, where the demand for oil in a heavily industrialized world could not keep up with the supply. We may not think about the other consequences regarding oil production on a daily basis, but bear in mind, it is happening at a worrying alarm. The entire world equilibrium will go haywire; economies will collapse, societies will run amok and the environment pushed to the brink of destruction.

Renewable Energy- When green solutions are not really green.

• Nuclear

Developed countries such as the United States, Japan and France have all turned to nuclear energy as an energy source. Though highly controversial, nuclear emits smaller amount of CO2 than burning fossil fuels and can produce significant amount of energy. However, that does not mean it's environmentally friendly. There are many environmental concerns regarding nuclear plants as radioactive nuclear wastes can be detrimental on land environment as well as the societies surrounding the reactors. A classic example would be the Chernobyl disaster, where a nuclear reactor exploded, released harmful radioactive particles and contaminated the air across Europe. The storage of nuclear waste also poses a problem as they are mostly only temporary. What's worrying is that the effects of radioactive contamination would not be known immediately; it affects the health by increasing the risk of cancer, contaminate our food, our rivers and fish, and there is no guarantee of a thorough clean up.

• Water

Water is one of the most basic, yet unique element on Earth. A chemical substance structured by molecules Hydrogen and Oxygen, it is highly diverse, malleable and is crucial to all living things. Water covers 71% of our Planet Earth, and the human body consists of 55-60% of water. Hydrokinetic power is probably the cheapest and most used form of renewable energy, easily accessed and emits minimal amount of CO2. Though hydro generated power may be a great solution to our energy woes, there are various environmental concerns that arise from large scale hydro dams, the effects on local communities through displacement and the disruption of wildlife equilibrium, while some hydro plants generate more greenhouse gases than fossil fuelled power plants.

• Solar

For eons, human beings have evolved into genius beings, adapting and learning survival skills from their immediate surroundings and utilizing the environment in their interests. Electricity was unheard of and mankind utilized solar power to do their daily activities such as cooking, heating and drying clothes. It is not a new and modern idea to utilize the sun's properties; greenhouses dated back to Roman times, sundials in ancient times, magnifying glasses to create fires and many other examples. With the development of modern technologies, are we going backwards in time as we create new platforms to harness the sun's solar power to its full potential?

Human civilization was not as complicated or populated as now. Solar energy is not available on a 24 hour basis, and even if energy can be stored, they are usually temporary and could not keep up with growing demands of electricity. Solar centres are expensive and take up a lot of land as well as having a tendency to pollute the environment.

• Biomass

Though biomass may be a great solution to waste management, as a renewable energy it might not be so. Burning anything at all releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Biomass also contributes to the logging of our forests as trees are being cut down to feed biomass burners and with the lack of regulations, our forests are being overwhelmingly exhausted.

As modern technologies developed and mankind discover more ingenious ways to conserve energy and reduce the effects of global warming, many instances these developments themselves pose the very threat they are meant to curb. We as individuals need to know our place and do our bit to conserve energy and stop taking matters lightly. As the world continues to suffer, the survival of mankind is running out of time. We need to stop turning a blind eye and depend on others to solve a problem each and every one of us helped created.