Eco Driving

Are you an Eco-Driver? Here is some driving tips from TOYOTA.












When running in the city, start/acceleration is frequently repeated, which consumes much fuel. Good start/acceleration plays an important role in energy saving. In case of a car with an eco drive indicator, adjust the accelerator so that the indicator will light .

Roof Garden

The roof garden or sky garden was introduced on 7 century by Nebuchadnezzer, known as Babylonia Hanging Garden.

This is a very logic way to build greener cities with limited green areas for their citizens.

Sky gardens offer several benefits one of them is as city lung. 155meter square of sky garden will produce enough oxygen for 1 person for 24 hours. If the garden also comes with trees, it will produce enough oxygen for 10 peoples. Exciting!!

In several developed countries, roof garden is one of the alternatives to provide green area for peoples.

There are Skyrise Greening Project in Singapore which is part of Taman Negara/ County Park project, Flying Green Project in HongKong which included roof garden as a standard for high-rises building, Ecoroof Project in German, also in Manhattan, Vancouver, London etc.

So, when is your turn, Indonesia?

BioFuel An Energy Crisis Solution Or New Disaster?

In these past 2 years, the world food price become out of control. Some of important food such as canes, soy, corns and cooking oil become more and more out of hand.

Why? As far as we knew, the harvests were good so the stocks must be abundant. What’s really happening here?

With fossil fuel has broke its own record, increased up to US $130/ barrel and the “hotter” Global warming issues, there’s emergency needs for every countries to find cheaper and greener energy alternatives. Bio fuel is considered to be the “one” everyone is looking for, which is far cheaper and produce less CO2.

Not surprisingly if most developed countries such as USA, Europe, North America have invested more and more money on Bio fuel from US$38 milliard in 2005 up to US$100 Milliard on 2010.

Is Bio fuel the real solution? Nah here is the ugly parts

Bio fuel is made from plants, both food and edible crops. Bio fuel crops include corn, soybeans, rapeseed (canola oil) sugarcane, palm trees (palm oil) and cassava, as well as experimental "second generation" crops such as switch grass, jatropha/ Jarak, giant reed, hemp, and algae. USA using corns to produce maize-ethanol ( a.k.a vodka minus H2O) Brazil using sugar canes to produce ethanol and Europeans countries using seeds ( mainly rapeseeds) mixed with palm oil (a.k.a cooking oil), imported from Malaysia and Indonesia, to produce bio-diesel.

Increased demand for bio-fuels crops is causing fundamental changes to agricultural pattern where farmers starts to switch their crops to bio fuels’ crops rather than others to gain more benefits, and on the other hand, the diverting increasing amount of basic food crops (corns, soybeans, rapeseeds) from farm animal feeds (which produce dairy products, eggs, meats) to bio fuel cause the costs of animal feed being pushed up. Beside, bio fuels require massive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers to produce, and the price of fertilizer rose by more than 200% in 2007 alone. Nitrogen fertilizers are largely made from natural gas. Bio fuel are pushing up the cost of all foods that require fertilizers and farm made products , including rice, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, eggs, meats and dairy products.

Competition between crops for bio fuel rather then for food has caused massive decrement on world food supply. FAO has declared global food prices had jumped up to 40% in 2007 and warned that 82 countries are facing food emergencies (a.k.a starvation) because cereal stocks are at an all-time low.

Bio fuels frenzies also cause environmental damage the two great world sponge of CO2. The increasing speed of deforestation of tropical forests in mostly in Asia countries (2.8 million hectare/year) for oil palm plantation has caused ecosystem damage. And the increasing acidity of oceans due to pollution has caused their losing ability to absorb CO2.

No wonder the new studies show that Bio fuel isn’t solution after all but another disaster which make global warming even worse by destroying world lungs.

Is bio fuel must be banned? Maybe not if the second experimental generations (mentioned above) actually work.

But, Scientist, why don’t make used of unlimited solar source instead? Is the invention of using solar energy has already hit the wall or has it become out of fashion? Please answer me….

Tortured to Death, poor elephant...

Read an article today from local newspaper. A male elephant was found tortured to death at one of the rubber plantation in Riau. The poor elephant’s head was severely damaged, there are numerous deep punctured wounds all over its body. The trunk was almost chopped off and the ivory surely be show off. The saddest thing was this poor creature’s front legs were tied with 14mm of barbwire. This meant all the tortured were planned and purposefully.

Although the elephant was one of the endangered animal under government protection, seem the authority do almost none to maintain their welfare. Even the case is now under police investigation, I, personally, feel skeptics about the outcome. So many unsolved killed elephants in Indonesia and this was the first tortured case I’ve ever read , feeling so sad and helpless even when I’m writing this down.

The irony is, the villages near by seem to glad the attention they got by authorities in investigating the case. They said, the governor seem to care much more about elephant than the villages(well they were wrong, they care none but their own butt). They claimed that the elephant was not alone, usually with a group of 40 would out of the forest to steal and ate the crops and young palm plant. Almost 2000 young oil palm trees already been eaten. Now, the elephant dead, the group were gone.

I’m sure the culprit is one of the villages. The torture is supposed to rid the group away because they’re tiring of night watch.

But, who’s really fault? The villages? The elephants? The villages are poor, they are just try to save their crops, they are wrong to tortured animal but still they are so poor and uneducated which in some condition will force them did un logic things. They blamed the elephant, and that was wrong. The elephants are a very huge mammal which needs a large space to live and eat a lot of greens. The elephants never stay at one place but always moving around the forest in circle, due to their memories. The main problem is, there isn’t much more forest to be circling now, maybe the village was located/ built on their pathway, but I think they out of forest due to hunger. They eat a lot, you see, because they are so big. Actually most animals scare of human being. Their instinct told them to avoid us, human, but as human will do, unbearable hungers overcome the fear, and they took the consequences which cause death to one of their member. So sad…make me want to puke....

Riau forest has reduced from 6, 2 million hectares to 2.2 million hectares (maybe less) due to illegal logging but mostly for oil palm plantation for there are many crude palm oil factories in Riau which needs a lot of oil palms. The villages will still clearing the forest in order to plant more oil palm trees to make a living. The government and authorities seem to keep their eyes closed and many have enjoyed big fat enveloped from local oil palm factories owner.

If not because of WWF active observation in Riau forest due to protected the rest of endangered Sumatra elephants which have been dying in alarming pace ( population decline to 75% in 11 years and currently there are only approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau.) , I’m 100% sure even when all the elephants have been slaughtered to none, no one in this world will know because this is Indonesia, where money talks never morals.

Ps.I post the picture of other elephant because the real one is to sadist to be posted ( I can't even make myself stare at it)