We’re Back!

Yes, you got that right mate!

We’re back with a whole new team this term for Global Debates, organised by The People Speak. With the hight standards set by our predecesors, this team must do as well as them will do our best while having loads of fun while we’re at it.

So much have been done already. So you people will hear soon about the Service Projects that we’ve worked on. Keep stalking this page alright to find out.

The topic for this year’s (2009/2010) Global Debates is “When it can not do both, the UN should prioritize poverty reduction over combating climate change.”

Basically this year its…..

POVERTY VS CLIMATE CHANGE

The others will starting posting up stuff soon to educate you masses about issues pertaining to this topic. Oh, and we’ll be introducing the new team in the “Green Team” page. Until then, here’s a little sneaky peaky of what we’re done so far =D

Closed till Further Notice

At the end of both the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 rounds, KTJ has emerged 6th place internationally, and has clinched a place in the Youth Leadership Summit in New York this coming July.

This achievement could not have been possible without the help and co-operation of several people.

To all those who supported and contributed to helping the Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar Global Debates Team in our project in one way or another – be it by means of letting us interview you, actively participating in our Earth Day event in school, by supporting our Adopt-A-Light-Bulb campaign, or simply by reading this blog – we cannot thank you enough.

To the school, for encouraging and being so supportive of our participation in the Global Debates competition, we thank you too.

An especially big shout out goes out to Ms. Sarah Clingan, our teacher adviser – thank you so much for supervising and supporting us, and seeing us all the way through this project and Monday night meetings.

And now, this chapter comes to a close.

The Flawed Argument of Bio-Fuels

BY NISHYODHAN BALASUNDRAM

With oil prices skyrocketing to new highs of US$145 as it did in 2008 coupled by its increased price volatility, the black gold of which our economy was built on can no longer be relied upon in the long run. We have finally been hit by the realisation of the dangers of the oil addiction: that one day in the future; we will eventually run out of this precious substance.

Last September, geologists at Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) Conference in California confirmed that world oil production had stopped growing and will begin its inevitable decline during the next decade. Hence, it would be foolish of us not to develop an alternative, renewable, cheaper fuel.

Some have lauded bio-fuels as the messianic saviour that will deliver us from a fuel crisis, should we ever run out of oil. However, bio-fuels are not the sustainable substitute to oil that they seem to be. In fact, they will only exacerbate the current environmental fiasco that we have created as well as cause new problems which we do not have time or resources to deal with.

An obvious problem with bio-fuels such as corn based ethanol is that their production reduces the amount of corn and other organic products that might have otherwise been used as food. In a nutshell, producing bio-fuels reduces food production. By reducing the supply of essential staples such as corn, food prices will inevitably rise as a result. This sets a dangerous precedent whereby, the interests of the haves trump that of the have-nots.

Next up, by producing these bio-fuels, especially palm oil, we are destroying millions of acres of pristine virgin tropical rain forests which are the most biologically diverse regions on Earth. These forests are habitat to flora and fauna found nowhere else on the planet and may hold the cures to a myriad of diseases that as of yet have no remedy.

As it is, logging and dam-building projects have desecrated millions of acres of these treasure troves and once gone, they are never coming back. Now, plantation companies are buying up chunks of these forests to convert into monoculture nightmares, incapable of supporting the diversity of life that a rainforest can. Critics such as the WWF have pointed out that the clear-cutting of lowland rain forests in Sumatra and Borneo which are orangutan habitat to make way for giant oil palm plantations has threatened to send these beautiful creatures to the brink of extinction. Desperate to defend their crop, palm oil producers have resorted to accusing the anti-palm oil movement of being instigated by the competitors of palm oil and countries like the United States.

Another fundamental flaw in the bio-fuel argument is the mindset that it is possible to grow enough of corn, sugarcane, oil palm and other viable crops to completely replace oil one day. This is ludicrous and clearly irrational – the amount of land it would take to supply the world’s demand for these fuels is just too much and will result in the conversion of huge tracts of agricultural land used to grow food to that used to grow fuel. This practice is unsustainable in the long run. What we need is a change of lifestyle, not a change of fuel.

An Environmental Opinion

In this interview, the Global Debates team speaks to Robert Basiuk, an environmental manager consultant who is also involved in eco-tourism.

A Different Point of View

In this video interview, the Global Debates team speaks to Katrina Lim, a student with a different take on climate change.

Roles of Nations

Our last public service announcement urges people to support and sign our petition to combat climate change. You can read and sign our petition here, or join the Facebook group by clicking here.

Words from the Community

The Global Debates team set out to speak to some members of our local community, as well as some of our fellow students at Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar, to ask for their two cents worth on the issue of climate change. Below are three interviews. Enjoy!

Fiction to Fact

BY MELISSA KONG

Recently, I happened upon an essay by Paphawi Leksakundilok. This 16-year-old teenager from Thailand recently won the accolade of Thailand’s IMPAC Young Writer’s Award, associated with the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

In her story, she writes about a child in the future, who lives in a world where the sea is at her doorstep, where the sun will easily scorch you to death, and where you cannot walk under the stars at night without suffering from the biting cold. She sits in a cave and listens to her grandfather in awe, captivated by tales of the wonders that the world once offered and of the luxury her ancestors once lived in.

She has never had the experience of seeing forests and flowers, of living in a house, or of using a computer. She merely knows that these things once existed through the tales her grandfather tells her. She knows nothing of the world that once was, because climate change and global warming has altered the Earth beyond the point of possible recovery.

This essay, to me, serves as a chillingly ominous warning. Looking back on what humanity has done in the past, more often than not, we seem to not think of the result of our actions. We’d rather deal with things when they happen, and not plan beforehand to avoid and combat the matter altogether.

But now, the issue is different. What we did in the past is catching up with us, and could threaten our very existence and the planet we inhabit. As Winston Churchill said, “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.”

Already, we are seeing the effect of climate change. Hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts and famine are becoming increasingly frequent and more devastating. Islands are disappearing with the rise in sea levels.

What if the imagined became real? What if this piece of fiction ironically became reality?

It it often said that prevention is better than the cure. Hence, I urge you all: do something, before it is too late, before fiction turns to fact.

NASA’s opinion

The Global Debates team interviews Dr. Zahidur Rahman. Dr. Rahman is an engineer at NASA, and here he speaks to us about his opinion on climate change.

Preparing the Lesson Plans

In this interview, the Global Debates team speaks to Ms. Marcel Campbell, who helped us come up with the environmentally-themed lesson plans to be implemented in Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar.