The smog conditions in Muar has reached critical levels this evening, even as the DOE website failed to record any readings after 11.00am.
The last reading for Muar was 373 at 11.00am
By 4.00pm, the reading soared to 453. Late last night, Lim Kit Siang tweeted that the readings had reached an incredible 519 at 8.00pm and 578 at 10.00pm, though he did not mention the source of his info.
It is appalling that the DOE is not providing us hourly updates unlike their Singapore counterparts.
This is environmental crime.
Attention is now focused on the open-burning suspects in Indonesia and elsewhere in the region. The spotlight falls on oil palm plantation companies and smallholders.
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Singapore smog is getting headlines in the UK and US, reminding all of the dreadful truth concealed behind the expensive branding of “Malaysia Truly Asia”. Whilst BN’s power-mongers are keen to promote Borneo’s ‘tropical paradise’ to tourists, correctly claiming that it is the oldest and richest jungle on earth, they are meanwhile scrapping with each other over the few remaining acres of pristine forests to chop down.
They then allow their oil palm concessionaires to start the raging fires that have shocked the world and drawn attention to this criminal greed. To add insult to injury they then try to blame the shifting cultivation practices of the indigenous people, who have carefully lived sustainably in the jungle for centuries.This environmental disaster lies squarely at the door of modern timber and agri-business and the politicians who are working with them hand in glove and turning a blind eye to malpractices.
After clear cutting the trees and burning off the jungle, the culprits then drench the thin soil cover with fertilisers to grow oil palm. These fertilisers and all the fast eroding earth from the denuded hillsides have then been pouring into the river systems and polluting them. Weeds have grown rampant and the fish have been dying. Sarawak has suffered this form devastation almost everywhere.
Where jungle has been based on peat these areas have been drained, permanently destroying their ecosystems and causing massive releases of greenhouse gases.
Najib will go to Indonesia to meet AI for his own political purposes but he won’t go to Indonesia for the ‘smog hazard’ experienced by Malaysians nor will he take any further actions needed to address the problems faced by the people. All these are because the GE is over and he does not need their votes, not at least for now not because he is too busy trying to plan to build the one million affordable houses that he promises to build for the people just before the GE. Najib a promise is a promise, especially one you made before the election, just remember the clock is ticking !
Reportedly, SIngapore is exploring legal action against two companies involved in the burning in Sumatra which is sending haze their way.
Two companies headquartered in Singapore but owned by Indonesians.
Will Najib’s ministers do the same thing with [any] Malaysian companies carrying out burning in Indonesia?