It's almost too late to stop global warming – so what's Malaysia doing about it?

Families being evacuated from their homes following flash floods in June 2021 in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. The world will experience more extreme weather events thanks to runaway global warming. — Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia / pix by Bomba // 29 June 2021

It was almost 25 years ago when I was in the office of the CEO of the Multimedia Development Corporation in Bangunan Getah Asli, Kuala Lumpur. Outside the window, through the haze, you could see the Petronas Twin Towers under construction. While he perused a newly photostated copy of my MSc in Information Technology, he asked me, “Do you know what the MSC is?”

Like most people then, I thought it was a silly name for a national project. But in utmost seriousness, I was told this: The MSC is Malaysia’s attempt to leapfrog into developed nation status by incorporating multimedia technology into how we work and live.