It’s not cool to waste electricity

Time to Change way we use appliances

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PETALING JAYA: Cooling homes and offices is big business due to Malaysia’s year-round hot and humid equatorial climate.

But changing a few simple habits can save consumers’ money and will be better for the environment, says Malaysian eco-activist Gurmit Singh.

“Research has shown in typical urban households in Malaysia, the highest electricity consumption goes to the air conditioner, followed by the fridge and water heater.

“If we tackle these three pieces of electrical appliances, we will be able to save a fair bit of electricity usage,” he said.

The chairman and founding executive director of Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) said many do not realise the temperature need not be set too cold.

“The same goes for offices. It is a waste of electricity by setting the temperature so low.

“Some hotels and offices are so cold that people have to dress as if they are in winter.

“Every degree we raise we are saving 10% of electricity consumption. If we raise five degrees, then we save at least 50% of the consumption.

“I think there is a lot of potential to reduce electricity consumption by increasing the thermostat or temperature setting of our air conditioner,” he said, adding that another simple rule of thumb is to switch off any electric appliances when not in use.

Gurmit, however, noted that in general, Malaysians care very little when it comes to saving energy.

“The problem with Malaysians is that we are so used to cheap electricity that many just couldn’t care less about electricity.

“Many tend to think they have enough money that they can afford to use as much electricity as they want.

“Such mindset has been like that for many years. They only hurt when their electricity bills surged suddenly,” he added.

Gurmit was referring to the case of consumers complaining of an unusual increase in their utility bills, which Tenaga Nasional acknowledged was a technical glitch in the system. (see related post below)

Pointing out that Malaysia’s electricity consumption is rather high, Gurmit noted the fact that the generation of electricity also contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases must not be omitted.

“Our per capita greenhouse gas emission is one of the highest in our region – we are probably only second to Singapore and similar to some European countries.

“It clearly shows that we use a lot of energy unnecessarily, not only in the electricity sector,” he said, adding that Malaysians must move away from that practice.

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Trump's overture to emerging Asia drowned out by trade war with China

US Trade war with China overshadows US$113m investment initiatives trumpeted by US Secretary of State

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When the U.S. Secretary of State flies into Southeast Asia this week with a new investment pitch for the region, the response could be: thanks a million, but please stop threatening a trade war with China that will make us lose billions of dollars.

Analysts say the $113 million of technology, energy and infrastructure initiatives trumpeted by Mike Pompeo earlier this week - the first concrete details of U.S. President Donald Trump’s vague ‘Indo-Pacific’ policy - may be hard to sell to countries that form an integral part of Chinese exporters’ supply chains.

It may even further inflame tensions with Beijing, which has been spreading money and influence across the region via its Belt and Road Initiative development scheme.

“The Southeast Asian capitals are more worried about any blowback effects for them of U.S.-China trade tension than they are about how much they can benefit from this $113 million initiative,” said Malcolm Cook, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

“Pompeo has a hard selling job. There is still no real positive trade story for Asia coming out of the United States.”

Hot on the heels of Washington’s new economic plan for emerging Asia came reports the United States could more than double planned tariffs on $200 billion of imported Chinese goods from dog food to building materials. China called it “blackmail” and vowed retaliation.

After a brief meeting with new Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur, Pompeo will fly to Singapore - a global trading hub that could be one of the hardest-hit in the region by a trade war - for a sit-down with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday.

Singapore’s biggest bank, DBS, estimates that a full-scale trade war - defined as 15-25 percent tariffs on all products traded between the U.S. and China - could more than halve Singapore’s growth rate next year from a forecast 2.7 percent to 1.2 percent. Malaysia’s growth rate in 2019 could fall from an estimated 5 percent to 3.7 percent.

“We are all acutely aware of the storm clouds of trade war,” Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said at the opening of an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting on Thursday that precedes meetings with the United States and other nations.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said earlier this year that a trade war would have a “big, negative impact” on the country.

Ratings agency Moody’s said this week that an escalation of trade tensions in 2018 had become its “baseline expectation”, and that Asia was “especially vulnerable” given the integration of regional supply chains.

SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA

As well as trade, Friday’s meeting will also cover security issues such as South China Sea disputes and North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. The United States will press Southeast Asian leaders to maintain sanctions on Pyongyang following reports of renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Pompeo will also travel to Indonesia during his trip - Southeast Asia’s biggest economy which under Trump faces losing some of the trade preferences given by Washington for poor and developing countries.

Few officials around the region offered comment on the Indo-Pacific strategy when contacted by Reuters for this story. One said that the ASEAN meeting in Singapore would be an opportunity “to have clarity and a more unified position” on the vision.br

One reason for caution is that the region has been wrong-footed by U.S. advances before.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “pivot” to Asia went on the backburner after Trump won the 2016 election promising to put “America First”. One of his early acts in office was to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which involved four Southeast Asian states.

The result was that across Asia, more and more countries were pulled into China’s orbit: softening their stance on territorial disputes in the South China Sea and borrowing billions of dollars from Beijing to develop infrastructure.

The Philippines is one example of a country which has taken a more conciliatory approach to China despite a bitter history of disputes over maritime sovereignty.

Its President Rodrigo Duterte frequently praises Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and in February caused a stir when he jokingly offered the Philippines to Beijing as a province of China.

Thailand, one of Washington’s oldest allies, is another major regional power perceived to have moved closer to China after U.S. relations came under strain because of concerns about freedoms under its military-dominated government.

Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Busadee Santipitaks told Reuters the country was proceeding with “a balanced approach” towards the United States and China.

U.S. officials said the Indo-Pacific strategy does not aim to compete directly with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Yet, in an apparent reference to China, Pompeo said Washington will “oppose” any country that seeks dominance in the region.

While Chinese officials have not criticized the U.S. approach, its influential state-run tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial on Tuesday: “Belt and Road is destined to continue to flourish. This has nothing to do with certain forces that are selfish and engage in petty practices and make jibes.”

John Geddie Reuters

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Exercise can affect your DNA

Exercise doesn't only improve your appearance, it can alter your genes, cutting your risks of obesity and diabetes, a new Swedish study finds.

While inherited DNA cannot be altered, the way that genes express themselves can through exercise, diet, and lifestyle, researchers from Lund University Diabetes Center explained, noting that a workout can positively affect the way cells interact with fat stored in the body.

Lead author Charlotte Ling, associate professor, and her team looked at the DNA of 23 slightly overweight but healthy men aged around 35. The men previously didn't exercise but attended indoor cycling and aerobics classes for six months. “They were supposed to attend three sessions a week, but they went an average 1.8 times,” says associate researcher Tina Rönn.

Using technology that analyses 480,000 positions throughout the genome, they could see that epigenetic changes had taken place in 7,000 genes (an individual has 20,000 to 25,000 genes). A closer look revealed genes linked to diabetes and obesity, also connected to storing fat, had also been altered.

“We found changes in those genes too, which suggests that altered DNA methylation as a result of physical activity could be one of the mechanisms of how these genes affect the risk of disease,” said Rönn.

“This has never before been studied in fat cells. We now have a map of the DNA methylome in fat,” Lind added.

The findings, announced this week, appear online in the journal PLOS Genetics.

A separate study published this March in the journal Cell Metabolism shows that when people exercise for as little as 20 minutes, it can alter their DNA almost immediately. - AFP Relaxnews

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South-East Asia in the frontline of US containing China rise?

The US presidential contest will make very little difference to us. American policy in the Asia-Pacific has already been reconfigured. The die has been cast.
DON’T wait up. As the world’s second-largest (and most expensive) democracy elects a president, South-East Asians might as well switch off. The US presidential contest will make very little difference for us.

Obama or Romney? Republican or Democrat? Who cares? American policy in the Asia-Pacific has already been reconfigured. The die has been cast.

After a decade-long obsession with Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has finally switched its focus further east.

In essence, Washington has acknowledged Asia’s centrality both economically and now, politically.

The move has been dubbed the “pivot” as a steady shift towards Asia (and especially the “containment” of China) becomes more deeply-institutionalised in Beltway thinking.

Another less well-known development is accelerating this shift.

Basically, the United States after decades of being a net importer of energy is emerging as a new exporter.

This trend – driven by the shale gas revolution (powered by the “fracking” technique by which gas is extracted from rock) – will reshape the way Americans view the world.

Certainly, petro-powers such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will see their influence dipping in Washington DC.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, the world’s second-largest energy consumer after China has huge shale gas reserves (some 860 trillion cubic feet).

Indeed, The Economist in July 2012 estimated that shale gas currently contributes one third of America’s gas supplies and by 2035 this could rise to 50%.

Moreover, these new developments could create three million jobs in the United States by 2020.

There’s also the possibility – controversial and hotly-debated– that America might start exporting its LNG surplus, generating, according to Michael A. Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations in an August 2012 New York Times article, an additional US$3bil per year for the American economy.

It’s hard to imagine how an energy-independent America will behave.

There’s no doubt that the Middle East will no longer be so central to US foreign policy. Instead, a resurgent America may well have greater wherewithal to check China in their common Asia-Pacific backyard.

Moreover, an influx of American LNG imports could strengthen its influence on countries like Japan (which is seeking to step away from nuclear power) and radically upend Asian energy markets, including in South-East Asia.

For starters, Indonesia’s coal will be less sought after.

At the same time, the region’s large and costly LNG facilities may well end up experiencing a drop in profitability as long-term contracts lose their attractiveness.

Ironically, America’s new-found energy independence is contrasted by China’s increasing energy import-dependence.

In July, Beijing’s National Energy Administration reported that the Middle Kingdom imported 81.09 million tonnes of coal (up 70.6% year-on-year), 30.2 million tonnes of crude oil (up 30.2%) and 4.08 million tonnes of LNG (up 100.2%) in the first half of 2012 alone.

China’s demand for energy is vast.

Imagine then a super-power that views its energy security with mounting unease, if not “paranoia”: watching developments in the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca and Myanmar as a series of deliberate moves to limit its reach.

So, while the US presidential elections won’t have any direct bearing on our lives, South-East Asians are going to have to get used to being an important geopolitical stage as the two great superpowers jockey for pre-eminence.

For starters, our hitherto uneventful Asean meetings (durian fests, golf, silk batiks and bad karaoke) will become argumentative, testing all of us.

What happened recently at the Asean Foreign Ministers meeting in Phnom Penh when the Cambodian hosts refused to sign off on a joint communique will become a regular occurrence as Great Power rivalry courses its way through our association.

Having said this, the region barely featured during the actual campaign.

The third and final Obama-Romney debate on foreign policy was merely a set-piece of China sabre-rattling.

Still, Obama’s “pivot” towards Asia and Romney’s talk of a “Reagan Economic Zone” of “free trade”-oriented nations to combat China’s influence underlines the shift.

Of course, all of this is not surprising. We all know that economic gravity is shifting to Asia which in turn will also boost the strategic importance of South-East Asia.

So, like it or not, the next American president’s main foreign policy challenges are likely to come from South-East Asia as anywhere else.

Let’s not forget that China will also have a new leadership in place by then as well, fronted by that princeling extraordinaire Xi Jinping.

As I said earlier, South-East Asia is likely to be at the frontlines of the next global contest for supremacy. Let’s hope we’ll be able to cope with all the attention.

CERITALAH By KARIM RASLAN

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