A huge section of the Milne Ice Shelf, the last of Canada’s intact ice shelves located on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, has collapsed into the Arctic Ocean, creating an “ice island” about 30 square miles in size, larger than that of the area of Manhattan. The shelf has now been reduced to 43 percent of its original size. Experts attribute this to global warming and climate change which of recent have seen a rise in temperature in the Arctic Region to twice that for the rest of the planet. In fact, one area in Siberia recorded a temperature of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The main contributory factor for global temperature rise is the extraction and burning of fossil fuels that release heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases into the atmosphere. CO2 concentration last month has reached the record level of 414.38 parts per million.
On the corruption front, we reported in last week that former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was convicted and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust. Last Thursday, another high-ranking Malaysian official, former Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng, was arrested for allegations of corruption involving a $1.5 billion undersea tunnel project which he led as Chief Minister prior to becoming Minister of Finance.
