Name: Li Huang Student ID：S07475
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year

 
Abtract: Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans, it could lead to many problems. Malaysia is a country suffering from it. There are four part in this paper, firstly, the writer tells the general situation of Malaysia. And what’s more, is the current situation of global warming, afer the brief introduction, the author describes the global warming in Malaysia. And the situation is very serious and the effects are terrible. Such as sea levels raising, effects on agriculture, seasonal patterns in ecosystems, extreme weather, and more diseases. In order to deal with global warming, many methords was used in Malaysia, and some of them are resultful.there are two ways: one is adaptation to it, the other is mitigation of it. These two ways are all  analysed by the author, including the detailed methods (included 4 methods). At the end of the article, the author give her own idea to deal with global warming of Malaysia (also 4 points).
 
Keywords:
Global warming; Malaysia; Dealing with.
 
 
Part 1: General Situation Of Malaysia
Malaysia is a country that consists of thirteen states and three federal territories in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of 329,847 km². It’s capital is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The country is separated into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Malaysia borders Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. And the weather is characterised by tropical climate.[①]
The population of Malaysia is approximately 25 million. There are Malays, Chinese and Indian communities. The the official language is Malay language.[②]
Malaysia experienced an economic boom and underwent rapid development during the late 20th century. With a GDP per capita standing at US Dollar 13,000[③], it has, from time to time, been considered a newly industrialized country. As one of three countries that control the Strait of Malacca, international trade plays a large role in its economy. At one time, it was the largest producer of tin, rubber and palm oil in the world. Manufacturing has a large influence in the country's economy. And in recent years the country depends much more on tourism.
In Asia, Malaysia is the founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and it also participates in many international organizations such as the United Nations.
 
Part 2: Current Situation Of Global Warming
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century, and its projected continuation[④].
The average global air temperature near the Earth's surface increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the hundred years ending in 2005[⑤]. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations"[⑥]via the greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward[⑦]. Here is a more direct chart.
 

Chart 1: Global Temperatures of recent 150 years[⑧]
These basic conclusions have been supported by at least thirty scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. Though some individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions.
Climate model projections summarized by the IPCC indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.[⑨] The range of values results from the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions as well as models with differing climate sensitivity. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise are expected to continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized. The delay in reaching equilibrium is a result of the large heat capacity of the oceans.[⑩]
Increasing global temperature will cause sea level rising, and it also will cause the intensity of extreme weather events for example, tidal wave, and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.
 
Part 3: Global Warming In Malaysia
(A) Malaysia is becoming warmer.

Picture 1: map of Malaysia
As a important member of ASEAN, Malaysia shares a lot of similarities with other south east asian nations. From the map, we can see that Malaysia is near the equator, and all the territory of it is in the south to the Tropic of Cancer. As an island nation, there is a huge ocean aroud the country. In physical geography, The climate type in there is tropical marine climate and tropical rainforest climate.
 
According to the reasearch of the temperature rising, these places in the south east Asia share the similar problems. “In Singapore, one of the neighbors of Malaysia, The average temperature in 1978 was 26.9°C, but after 20 years, the temperature is raising at 28.4°C.” a professor of World Health Organization said that. The emperature rising situation in malaysia almost the same.
 
Some students and teachers in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University Teknologi Malaysia did a lot of deeply research and investigation in studying the global warming trend in Malaysia. They used approximately 50 years of temperature data set. Least square regression line, coupled with null hypothesis tests were carried out to detect any significant trend.

Chart 1 : The regression line of the mean annual temperature of Kuala Lumpur from 1951-2001[11]
 
In this chart, we can see clearly that the annual temperature of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is raising evidently. And in this article, the writers also gave the data of other places of Malaysia such as Penang, Kota Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Cameron Highland.
 

Table 1: The results of null hypothesis test on Pearson correlation coefficient of
mean annualtemperature regression line for selected station[12]
 
So they gave the conclusion that a significant increase of the mean annual temperature, ranging from 0.99 to 3.44°C per 100 years is forecasted, and the mean annual temperature regression lines(for all the analyzed stations)exhibit that the global warming trend has increased in the past 30 years.[13]
 
 
 
(B) The effects of global warming in Malaysia .
The predicted effects of global warming on the environment and for human life are numerous and varied. There are different effects to different countries. Malaysia hold herself’s problems.
 
1. Raising sea levels
 Sea-level has risen about 130 metres since the peak of the last ice age about 18,000 years ago. Most of the rise occurred before 6,000 years ago. From 3,000 years ago to the start of the 19th century sea level was almost constant, rising at 0.1 to 0.2 mm/yr. Since 1900 the level has risen at 1 to 2 mm/yr; since 1993 indicates even a rate of rise of 3.1 ± 0.7 mm yr–1.[14]
If this acceleration remains constant, then the 1990 to 2100 rise would range from 280 to 340 mm[15], Sea-level rise can be a product of global warming through two main processes: thermal expansion of sea water and widespread melting of land ice. Global warming is, as it were, predicted to cause significant rises in sea level over the course of the twenty-first century.
 The hazard of Raising of Sea-level rise is obvious. The water can floods the land. A residenter in Malaysia wrote his/her mind in blog, he/she said that: “Hence, a littoral state like Malaysia may lose some of its land to the sea…It will not happen in my lifetime, but if things remain as they are now, Malaysia could be a smaller country when it celebrates its 100th or 150th birthdays. What will happen then to Penang, Langkawi or Tioman?[16].” That’s really very serious. Not only Malaysia, her neighbors, also had the same problem.
 
2. Climate change with agriculture & Changes in the timing of seasonal patterns in ecosystems
Global warming is projected to have significant impacts on conditions affecting agriculture, including temperature, precipitation. These conditions determine the carrying capacity of the biosphere to produce enough food for the population. Assessment of the effects of global climate changes on agriculture might help to properly anticipate and adapt farming to maximize agricultural production.
That’s true in Temperate Zone, but in Torrid Zone, global warming isn’t good for this area. Many forest may turn into grassland,and grassland may change into desert. The climate change could lead to less rainfall.
 This method is effect by analogy to other plants, especially to the tropical rain forest. Decreased rainfall and an increased risk of drought, leading to the extinction of some indigenous species, too.
For instance, Coral reef bleaching in Indian Ocean is going on (inclues Malaysia)[17]. Data collected on forests in Panama and Malaysia has revealed that global warming could reduce the growth of trees in tropical rainforests by 50 percent, besides severely [...]

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