Changing mindsets on emissions

IT was highly ironic to have a chat on emissions recently while eating at a steakhouse.

When we talk of lowering carbon emissions in Malaysia, it seems we talk more about coal power plants rather than focusing on just how much petrol we use by comparison. Here’s the thing, coal power plants while far from being green, are a bane when it comes to carbon emissions.

But it is cheap and thus, cost effective in generating electricity, which the government can then subsidise for less. Of course, if we are going into higher cost energy generation with the government wanting to foot the bill in subsidising it for the masses, more power to them.

However, how do you explain the affront to cheap energy when people prefer expensive personal transport in such a schizophrenic way?

A petrol car stuck in a traffic jam has its emissions singled out to an average of one person per vehicle during rush hour compared with a coal power plant powering entire communities. Let us not even get started on the fact that we do not enforce guidelines and regulations on cars and heavy transport emissions in this country.

So, compare the person using electricity and driving a petrol car, along with the one using electricity while riding a train or bus, who is the bigger polluter?

Again, we don’t look at the emissions issue from other perspectives as well – being a net importer of products means we bear the emissions of trading goods and bringing them here.

We don’t look at food habits and consider the emissions caused in rearing the food as well, otherwise we would have less meat in our diets.

Of course, I am also held liable for increasing emissions via one tiny fraction due to my smoking habit of one pack a day, though switching to vaping or e-cigarettes might help give me a less guilty conscience.

Solutions to the emission issue for Malaysia will not be easy. We are a country still hooked on driving rather than taking the train.

We are a country that talks big about wanting changes but seldom want to sacrifice for such a change.

The major problems in implementing emissions reducing strategies in Malaysia is mindset and design, and the two are correlated.

Our mindsets have not shifted from wanting a car, right up to the prime minister, and our public transportation networks are badly designed and implemented.

I’ll give you an example of the insanity that is the MRT bus network in Damansara, Petaling Jaya. Here is a bus that will charge you RM1 to get you from Damansara Perdana to 1Utama shopping mall, but it will cost you RM2 to get back home.

Why? Well, because the bus route ends at Mutiara Damansara MRT station, and you have to wait 20 to 30 minutes at the station for the next MRT bus to push off and get charged an additional RM1.

Now empathetically we can all agree the bus driver needs his break to have lunch or go pray, but for commuters this is just wacky beyond all understanding.

It’s as if MRT Corporation believes we should be mall hopping before arriving home.

Why not have a bus already on standby to push off when the next bus arrives, for a seamless system? I’ve no idea, perhaps the MRT Corporation can clarify.

Similarly, why isn’t each bus station upgraded to inform when the next bus is arriving via a GPS tracker? The now defunct Land Public Transport Commission or SPAD had implemented a speed monitoring system via GPS for bus operators since 2014.

Why wasn’t a similar system implemented by the Rapid bus companies under Prasarana to monitor late arrivals at bus stops, or even have an LED board at each station to show the time of arrival?

On a recent trip to Putrajaya, I had to take a cab and ended up with a driver who insisted that the problem with Malaysia was that our highways didn’t have enough lanes. This is what caused traffic jams, and he believes that expanding the tunnels leading to Ipoh and even on the Karak highway would make traffic better.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that increasing highway lanes and even blowing open a tunnel to be wider would not solve the problem because it will just cause more traffic and get jammed up even worse.

The same thing will happen when you don’t set a price ceiling and just decide that adding 20% of flights during festive seasons will solve the problem of higher air fares.

I mentioned there was a mindset problem and here it is – Malaysians don’t want to sacrifice their comfort for the environment. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a human thing. Of course we want a greener planet and less carbon emissions, with clear skies and lower temperatures from the searing hot sun.

If saving the environment by cutting emissions means walking or taking a train or bus, seated next to someone with body odour, with the carriage temperatures shifting from “hot sauna” to “freezing cold Himalayas”, many would opt for having their own car.

And, they would rather go broke or bankrupt just trying to keep it that way. Until that changes, I believe we are pretty much talking to a brick wall when it comes to cutting emissions.

Hafidz Baharom is a public relations practitioner. Comments: letters@ thesundaily.com