Saturday, September 12, 2009

Nasty Emissions - Government's Role

As I was reading the article written by Wong Sai Wan, Stuck with Dirty Diesel, my first thoughts were - it's high time to migrate to a country that has stricter emission laws so that our children can breathe in fresh air everyday and enjoy a better quality of life - it makes a BIG difference.

With so many campaigns to save our earth, how about starting with the biggest contribution of air pollution - emission from vehicles ---> solution: promote usage of a less harmful fuel. It's is sad to learn that our country is still lagging way back in terms of selling a more-environmental-friendly diesel in the LOCAL market. We refine and export Euro 4 diesel (which has lower sulphur content - which emits way lesser pollutants) to other countries but our own. As the author put it: "While people as far away as California – which has the world’s most stringent emission laws – get to enjoy Euro 4 fuel made here in Malaysia, we Malaysians are stuck with our dirty diesel".

What is the reason? -----> it all points to inefficient government policies. By bowing down to pressure from foreign oil companies (which operate the majority of petrol stations in the country) -----> in the name of profit, of course; we have to pay a huge price living in a polluted environment. So much for the development of a 'green civilization'.

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