Lai Cheng

Pesticides travel up the food chain like silent assassins. The spider eats the poisoned fly. The bird eats the poisoned spider. The nest fills with poison. Baby birds die in their shells, never knowing why their world turned toxic. Renowned nature writer, scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson – author of the book “Silent Spring”, which raised awareness about the dangers of pesticides –...

A single mature tree can release up to 380 liters of water vapour per day through a process called evapotranspiration. As water moves from roots to leaves and evaporates into the air, it draws heat away from the environment, lowering temperatures and refreshing the air around it. In fact, according to a study cited by Berkeley Lab and the US Environmental Protection Agency, the cooling effect of...

Every year on the first weekend of July, an annual event is organized to celebrate the importance of fireflies in our ecosystems and to increase public awareness about the risks these luminous insects face. The theme for 2025 World Firefly Day is "Help us keep the sparkles burning," which will be held on July 5th and 6th. World Firefly Day serves to draw attention to the ongoing threats these...

Birds in urban areas are having a tough time as shady trees are often felled to make way for shopping and housing complexes, road widening, new highways, power lines, parking lots and mobile phone communication towers that are being erected. In the last several years, hundreds of trees and bushes have been cleared to make way for road expansion projects and the concretization of large open...

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) welcomes the stricter control on plastic waste imports imposed by the Malaysian government under the amended Customs Order.  We appreciate that Malaysia is taking measures against the environmental injustices associated with the global waste trade.  We hope that with stringent enforcement, it will help put an end to the environmental and human health harm caused by...