[Community]

 

The scene of devastation along Jalan Tropicana Utama and Jalan TR 9/2 and 9/6 in Tropicana Golf & Country Resort, Petaling Jaya, Selangor was quite a spectacle. Residents came out of their homes to survey the damage while the fire brigade and Tropicana’s Polis Bantuan were on scene to assist. Thank God that no one was hurt in all the carnage which resulted from a massive thunder and lightning storm.

The fire brigade suspected that a number of trees were downed by lightning strikes as there was charring on the bark of the trees. Unfortunately, Jalan TR 9/2 happens to have a good number of cars parked by the roadside and a number were damaged by the fallen trees and branches. The falling trees even caused a lamppost to fall blocking the entire road. Houses were not spared either as trees (yes trees!) and branches literally flew into houses damaging the properties.

I’ve lived in Damansara and Petaling Jaya all my life and I’ve never seen a storm so severe that it caused so the damage I witnessed today. Scientists have attributed this extreme weather to climate change and global warming which impacts the amount of water in the atmosphere, which in turn produces violent downpours instead of steady showers when it does rain. Hurricanes and typhoons will increase in power, and flooding will become more common as we have seen in recent years with the occurrence of typhoons such as Typhoon Meranti that lashed the Philipines, Taiwan and China recently, Haiyan which caused a huge loss of live in the Philipines, and Katrina which struck Southeastern USA causing billions in damages.

 

 

So what can you do to assist Mother Nature? Well for starters, you can reduce, reuse and recycle. Reduce the amount of materials you consume, reuse what you can like bottles and jars, and for goodness sake please take recycling seriously. If more materials are recycled, there won’t be such a great need to keep on producing new materials which adds to pollution.

Reduce also means switching off your lights and electrical appliances when they are not in use. This reduces the amount of electricity the power companies needs to produce, saving precious natural resources like oil and gas.

If everyone did their bit for the environment, the cumulative effect just might be enough to save the planet for the next generation. Think about it and take action. Don’t wait, we’ve no time to lose.

.