Problem that needs to be attended to urgently

THE Sunday Star editorial yesterday, “Climate change – it’s time we changed, too”, is a good and necessary wake-up call. As Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin put it: Two years after Malaysia signed the Paris Agreement, nothing much has been done by us.

A Merdeka Centre 2016 survey found that only 32% of Malaysians were concerned about climate change. This is worrying because the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made clear that climate change is already happening, with the world experiencing more devastating hurricanes and typhoons and record droughts due to rising sea levels and temperatures. The dire outcome of not dealing with climate change in Malaysia includes floods, less food, and water shortages. Selangor’s six million residents, for instance, can expect to experience more frequent water shortages and drier dams.