Wake up, Gunung Jerai floods could be signs of climate change – Naturalist

“We must wake up to understand that climate change is going to hit us. Extreme weather pattern is going to hit us over and over again. Unless we change our patterns, we protect our natural landscapes, protect our forests. Ultimately this is us affecting our environment,” says naturalist Andrew Sebastian. Photo source from Twitter.
Naturalist Andrew Sebastian

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 – If there have been no logging or any other land clearing activities, what is happening in Gunung Jerai could be signs of localised climate changes, says Naturalist Andrew Sebasian.

Speaking to Weekly Echo here today, he said this could be “nature hitting back at us, where localised climate change has affected the weather patterns globally but for Malaysia and in Gunung Jerai area, it has hit in terms of extreme weather patterns.”

This has resulted in intense rain in one area affecting the hydrology and topography of this area and causing the floods.

“Unless we get the expert reports to come in (we won’t know exactly what has happened). From what I know there is no logging up there. Very little entry up on the hills there.

“But we do know around the base of the area and a lot of hill sides around Gunung Jerai, as the same of the country, a lot of forest clearings have been going on.

“We must wake up to understand that climate change is going to hit us. Extreme weather pattern is going to hit us over and over again. Unless we change our patterns, we protect our natural landscapes, protect our forests.

“Ultimately this is us affecting our environment.”

Asked if there has been any weather engineering going around the country and if that is affecting the country’s patterns, Andrew said he did not know if there has been any weather engineering but said that this was pointing at how fragile the country’s natural ecosystems are.

“If we don’t protect our forests, our natural ecosystems, it affects the environment and this causes climate change and climate change causes intense weather pattern change and then we get the disasters.”

–WE