British environmentalist leads fight against Sabah coal plant

Savage paraglides while carrying a banner protesting the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Sabah. — Pictures courtesy of Roz Savage/Green SURF

KOTA KINABALU, July 23 — A British ocean rower and environmental campaigner took to the skies and seas the past week in Sabah, spreading the word in her battle against “dirty energy”.

Roz Savage, who this year became the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean, climbed Mount Kinabalu and dived in waters off here, before ending her trip parasailing in Tanjung Aru.

Throughout her mountain high to ocean deep adventures, she carried a banner sponsored by Green SURF (Sabah Unite to Re-Power the Future) and the international 350.org, calling for clean energy in Sabah.

“We will fight dirty energy on the land. We will fight dirty energy in the air. We will fight dirty energy under the water because dirty energy pollutes all of these,” Savage said after completing her paragliding at Beach Bums Borneo Tanjung Aru.

Savage had teamed up with the two organisations in a campaign to pressure the government into scrapping a proposal to build a 300MW coal-fired power plant in Lahad Datu.

The Malaysian Insider had previously reported that an environmental impact assessment on the proposed power plant stated that its construction stands to raise surrounding sea temperature by four degrees Celcius as well as damaging the livelihoods of local fishermen.

According to documents made available to The Malaysian Insider, the power plant near Kampung Sinakut, Lahad Datu, will also result in the loss of a traditional seaweed farming area measuring 4km.

Savage said she was sure that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would do the right thing for Malaysia and the world in pushing for clean energy.

“The intelligent choice for any modern, forward-looking country is clean, renewable energy.

Savage (right) took her message up to the top of Mount Kinabalu.

“I took up my oars because I believe in a cleaner, greener future. I urge you to take up your pen, phone, or computer mouse, and let the prime minister know how you feel about dirty old energy. Our future depends on it,” she said.

Green SURF’s Cynthia Ong said Savage received an email from 350.org on the coalition’s efforts to halt the construction of the power plant and asked what she could do to help.

“Roz Savage had just completed rowing solo across the Pacific and was passing through the region. She heard our call and asked what she could do to help our campaign.

 “She knows, as we do, that this is both a local and global story of our energy quest and climate change,” Ong said.

Ong, who just returned from the annual gathering of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Bali, stressed that there is a need for locals to voice and act upon their concern about the coal plant.

“Over 850 of the world’s biologists and conservationists gathered in Bali. The graphic simulation based on science of where our planet is headed towards 2100 is catastrophic.

“Life as we know it will be dramatically different. We are talking about our children’s and grandchildren’s generations,” she said.

Souce: The Malaysian Insider

Dear friends, Save our Environment or Coal..???..peace..