Category Archives: Insight

Short features 500-1200 words

Insight

Can Malaysia’s AI data centres go green?

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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)

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Insight

Adopting Seahorses to Save Seagrass Meadows

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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)

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Insight

Ingrained in Culture, Songbird Competitions Reign

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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

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Insight

Helping Sabah’s Sun Bears Return to the Wild

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(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.

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Insight

Banking on River Reserves to Protect Water Supply

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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)

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Insight

Langur In City Spotlights Efforts To Tackle Wildlife Trade Online

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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)

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Insight

Social Media Makes It So Easy To Like And Buy Exotic Pets

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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)

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Insight

气候变迁法案是系统治灾依据

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治灾防灾靠的不只是人力财力，更需要完善的法律。

为解决气候变迁和频繁水灾的根本问题，气候变迁法案是其中一个尚在规划的方案，而前能源、工艺、科学、气候变化及环境部长兼蒲种国会议员杨美盈希望在团结政府届满前，在国会提呈及通过气候变迁法案。

她之前解释，政府应成立一支特工队，设下18个月的目标，在2年内完成气候变迁法案。

(图片：水灾给百姓带来巨大的损失。| 来源：Canva 图片库)

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Insight

可持续规划，治水灾根本

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气候变迁导致降雨骤增，更揭露了我国长期忽视排水需求的根本问题。我们该如何对治频频发生的严重水灾呢？

每年年杪至年初，水灾一直是马来西亚的重大课题。根据国家灾难管理机构（NADMA）灾难控制中心发出的最新全国灾难事故报告指出，2023年11月11日至2024年1月13日期间，累计有2万2966户家庭和7万4807名受害者安置在临时疏散中心（PPS），其影响农地达4900公顷，造成我国2300万令吉的经济损失。

(图片：淹没的村镇。 | 来源：Canva 图片库)

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