What it Takes for M40s to Go Solar`
As higher electricity bills make solar more attractive, loans and rent-to-own schemes help middle-class families overcome ownership cost barriers.
Published: 24 August, 2026
Category Archives: Insight
Short features 500-1200 words
Can Malaysia’s AI data centres go green?
A wave of AI server farms is turning Malaysia into Southeast Asia’s digital epicentre, but their high energy use could derail the country’s climate goals, writes Genevieve Mallet, Dialogue Earth.
DATA CENTRES are springing up across Southeast Asia as China and the US vie for Artifical Intelligence (AI) supremacy. Tech giants – from ByteDance and Alibaba to Google and Microsoft – are setting their sights on Johor, Malaysia’s manufacturing hub just across the strait from Singapore. A rich agricultural state, Johor is now also home to sprawling data centre parks.
Since 2023, Malaysia has announced RM99 billion in data centre investments, much of it involving AI facilities, with a further RM149 billion in the near future. With cheap electricity, labour and ample land, Malaysia has proven to be a compelling alternative to its land-constrained neighbour and is set to become the fastest-growing data-centre hotspot in Southeast Asia.
(Feature image: Workers at a data centre under construction in Sedenak Tech Park in Johor | Image © Vincent Thian / Associated Press / Alamy)
Adopting Seahorses to Save Seagrass Meadows
Finding seahorses and naming them gets people excited about conservation, even if they get stuck in silt.
WADING THROUGH a seagrass meadow at low tide, at 6.50am, is anything but graceful for a newbie. Each step in the waterlogged mud forms an air-tight seal around our feet, threatening to swallow our boots and shoes.
Earlier, the Save Our Seahorses (SOS) Malaysia survey team, and a small group of public participants had boarded a small fishing boat, scooting for approximately 20 minutes from the fishing jetty at Pendas, to the Merambong seagrass bed, less than 500m off Johor’s Forest City.
This morning’s search for seahorses goes slow at first, although we see black sea slugs, shrimp, and the occasional crab or fish darting around the centimetres-deep water. Then, our guide Wong Jieyi sights one male seahorse.
(Feature image: At the Merambong seagrass meadow in Johor, volunteers for NGO Save Our Seahorses search for seahorses during low tide at dawn. Changing tide times throughout the year means that sometimes survey trips can take place in complete darkness as well. | Photo: Vincent Tan)
Ingrained in Culture, Songbird Competitions Reign
Ingrained in culture, songbird competitions reign
A platform for community, a pleasurable pastime, and continuity in tradition: songbird competitions in rural Kelantan prevail, even as their impact on wild birds is unclear.
Text and Photos by Mukhriz Hazim
Published: 8 May 2025
Helping Sabah’s Sun Bears Return to the Wild
(Feature image: Sun bears Sunbearo and Loki being released into the forest in 2021. The two were among the 12 bears released by the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) between 2015–2022. (Tee Thye Lim/BSBCC))
Returning rescued sun bears to their wild homes is tough and too many die in the process. While conservationists labour to help these bears, they say it is better that the bears never left the forests.
INSIDE SABAH’S Tabin Wildlife reserve, just over an hour’s drive from the seaside town of Lahad Datu, 4 men trudge into a natural clearing in the forest, their footing sure despite the muddy terrain. They are carefully hauling the disassembled parts of a wild bear trap.
One man empties a packet of bait into a small cage made of wire mesh. He hoists and suspends the small cage into the air. His 2 other teammates rapidly assemble the bear trap.
Banking on River Reserves to Protect Water Supply
Selangor wants to secure its water supply with more river reserves. But will the law have teeth? And what about protecting the forests that feed the rivers?
SELANGOR residents are no strangers to frequent water cuts. They have suffered water cuts due to river pollution every year in the last decade except for 2017 and 2018, according to news reports.
Pollution in the raw water intake, particularly from illegal dumping and industrial discharge into rivers, has forced Air Selangor to shut down key treatment plants. Such disruptions severely impact the water supply for residents across Klang Valley and surrounding regions.
(Feature image: Volunteers doing their best to keep a riverbank clean in Taman Melawati, Selangor. River pollution has caused major and costly water cuts in the state. | Photo by Chen Yih Wen)
Langur In City Spotlights Efforts To Tackle Wildlife Trade Online
IN OCTOBER 2023, ecologist Izereen Mukri received a phone call and a photo about a “weird monkey” in the urban park near his house called Taman Subang Ria in Selangor.
Izereen glanced at the photo. Greyish black with a long tail – it was a Selangor silvery langur, Trachypithecus selangorensis, a primate species classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. These langurs live in mangroves or by rivers, not in a park surrounded by roads and buildings.
He went to observe the langur. It was a female that must have felt terribly alone as the species naturally lives in a group. It was not eating its natural diet of shoots, but the apples and bananas left by park visitors. It was also relaxed when humans got close. Izereen, who spoke to Macaranga in his personal capacity, suspects that it used to be someone’s pet.
(Feature image: The lone female Selangor silvery langur found lingering in an urban park in Subang Jaya, Selangor. “It was a beautiful shot. But I rather not have it,” said wildlife photographer Izereen Mukri of this January 2024 photo. | Photo by Izereen Mukri)
Social Media Makes It So Easy To Like And Buy Exotic Pets
AT 7pm JUST after dinner, Sam* would walk his dog around his neighbourhood block in Petaling Jaya, come home and feed the dog. Then he would either play online video games with his friends or scroll through social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram right before bed.
And once every few weeks, he adds something to this routine. After feeding his dog he would feed his other pets: a ball python (Python regius), a bearded dragon (Pogona spp.) and a sulcata tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata).
(Feature image: Screenshot of exotic pet content on popular social media platform TikTok. | Image by Macaranga)
