ANN/THE STAR – There’s something about contemporary artist Annabell Ng’s artwork that exudes a delicate fragility, yet when you step forward to view it up-close, you’ll see that it’s far more resilient than it looks – like a dandelion growing through cracked concrete.

You get a similar impression when meeting with the artist herself. Though soft-spoken and not one for many words, Ng’s passion for her work and its messages shine through. “I see the environment as something that shapes who we are,” said Ng, 41.

And indeed, Inland, her debut exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery, showcases a series of experimental artworks that capture the essence of nature, prompting us to contemplate our close, yet complex relationship with the environment.

Ng’s innovative use of organic materials serves as a tactile representation of the tenuous balance that exists within ecosystems, reminding us of the interconnectedness that binds all living beings and encouraging us to revere and protect it.

The 11 pieces featured in the exhibition uses a mixture of mediums, comprising materials natural and man-made, such as flowers, leaves and bark to wax, glass and metal.

Ng’s works primarily use an earthy palette of creams and browns that are contrasted by splashes of colour – the pieces have an luminous quality, inviting you to gaze into the play of textures and hues.

Apart from this exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, she is also currently a resident artist at independent arts centre Rimbun Dahan in Selangor.

Her residency work explores her practice focused on mark-making reminiscent of minute fragments, as well as developing her concepts of mycelium cultivation.

It’s not common for an artist to focus on one specific issue, but to Ng, her art is not only a way to express the beauty of nature, but to also highlight major environmental issues of our time.

At the Wei-Ling Gallery, visitors can marvel at her works surrounding these topics and how humans affect the Earth’s system.

Luminous Matter, for example, is a fascinating piece comprising laboratory instruments made of glass and microscope slides with plant and animal specimens that have been meticulously labelled.

Ng carefully put the materials together into chandelier-like light fixtures, representing a smaller scale version of our universe. “In this piece, I wanted to show the biodiversity of our world, which is often overlooked.

“The lightbulb in the centre is the energy source, like our sun, and the specimens in the slides are all the organisms that rely on that light to survive, forming an intricate support system,” she said.

In the large, circular piece Rhythms, Ng intertwines gestural mark-making with natural materials, harnessing the raw essence of the natural world to evoke a profound connection to our shared human experiences.

Ng shared that choosing which materials to work with is a crucial part of her process, revealing that it’s often a spontaneous choice, driven by instinct and whatever catches her eye.

“I like working with wax. I imagine that life is like a river – there are times when it’s moving and flowing, and there are times when it hardens into something solid.

“Wax is similar in that way, that it can be liquid one moment, and solid the next,” said the multi-talented artist, who has degrees in classical music and the fine arts.

Born in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Ng has always shared a deep connection with her father, both driven by a mutual passion for plants. “I was never a particularly boisterous child, but I’ve always liked to spend time in nature. I think in its own way, nature speaks to me.

When I’m out among the trees, I feel free and at peace,” she said.

In turn, this love of nature is something that she now shares with her four-year-old son, whom she tells us is also a source of inspiration for her work.

“I often think about what I can do to make a better world for him, which is reflected in my artwork,” said Ng.

For the piece Resemblance, made from preserved plants frozen in time between glass, much of the materials that were used were collected by Ng and her son during their walks out in nature.

“This piece is a reminder of the times I spent with my son as we gathered the flowers and leaves. There are a lot of memories and experiences captured in this work,” she shared with a smile.

“Ultimately, I hope visitors will be able to see nature’s possibilities through my work,” she added. – Hanis Maketab

PARIS (AFP) – Plastic litter in rivers might be allowing dangerous pathogens to hitch-hike downstream, a new study found.

The research, which focused on one UK river, found that dumped plastic, wooden sticks and the water itself were a breeding ground for communities of microorganisms, potentially providing a reservoir for bacteria and viruses known to cause human diseases and antibiotic resistance.

“Our findings indicate that plastics in freshwater bodies may contribute to the transport of potential pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes,” said lead author Vinko Zadjelovic of the University of Antofagasta in Chile.

“This could have indirect but significant implications for human health,” he told AFP.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health threat. In 2019, infections related to antibiotic resistance are estimated to have killed 2.7 million people worldwide.

By 2050 they are predicted to cause 10 million deaths worldwide, according to the study, published in the journal Microbiome.

When plastic ends up in water its surface is overrun within minutes by nearby microbes.

The researchers submerged samples for a week in the River Sowe in Warwickshire and West Midlands England, downstream from a wastewater treatment plant.

They found significant differences in the microbe communities depending on the material sampled.

Wastewater is required to be treated and disinfected to reduce microbial hazards and any adverse impacts they might have on human and environmental health.

But the water samples that the researchers collected in February of 2020 harboured human pathogens such as Salmonella, Escheria most commonly known as E.Coli, and Streptococcus responsible for strep throat. That underscores “the pressing need for stricter monitoring of wastewater treatment plants,” said Zadjelovic.

Meanwhile, the plastic and wood samples attracted “opportunistic” bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and aeromonas, known to pose risk to people with compromised immune systems.

P.aeruginosa, which causes infections in hospital patients, was found to be nearly three times more abundant on “weathered plastic” that the researchers manipulated to resemble the way plastic breaks down in nature, when compared to the wood.

That weathered plastic also showed a greater abundance of the genes responsible for antibiotic resistance traits.

In recent months, British water companies have come under fire over the pumping of raw sewage into the United Kingdom’s waterways and the underreporting of pollution events, provoking widespread public anger.

Rivers are the main way plastic enters the world’s oceans, channelling anywhere between 3.5 thousand tonnes to 2.41 million tonnes of the material to the sea annually.

THE WASHINGTON POST – Microplastics have popped up in rivers, oceans, soil, food, tea and even Antarctic snow – and now these tiny plastic particles are showing up in clouds.

A group of researchers from Waseda University in Tokyo recently found microplastics in the clouds above Mount Fuji.

In a paper published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, the researchers wrote that these airborne microplastics could influence cloud formation – and in turn the climate.

Plastic is ubiquitous – humans have produced more than eight billion tonnes of it – and less than 10 per cent of it is recycled.

Because plastic waste doesn’t break down easily, it can exist in the environment for hundreds of years, becoming smaller and smaller, and ending up in our food, our bodies and the environment.

It’s still unclear exactly how harmful these tiny particles are to humans, but some of the chemicals in plastics are believed to interfere with reproduction, stress responses, immune response and development.

Microplastics in oceans threaten marine life and birds, and while there’s been less research on mammals, the studies that have been done point to serious harms.

The authors of the new study warn that the presence of microplastics in clouds may present a whole new set of problems, though.

FINDING PLASTIC IN THE SKY

One of the authors of the study, said Hiroshi Okochi said he wasn’t surprised to find airborne microplastics in the clouds above Mount Fuji.

“Early studies of airborne microplastics (AMPs) had found microplastics in atmospheric fallout, including rainwater,” Okochi said in an email.

He and his colleagues hypothesised that, if the tiny particles were in rain water, they must be in cloud water, too.

Studying this wasn’t easy. The Mount Fuji Research Station is located at the highest of the eight peaks of Mount Fuji, next to an unobstructed cliff where the researchers could collect samples of cloud water without interference from climbers or mountain huts.

They collected samples only during the summer months on Mount Fuji, at altitudes of about 3,800 meters, or 12,400 feet. A researcher would collect samples every few hours based on cloud density.

The team analysed cloud water for the presence of plastics. Researchers found material that’s used in many plastic products, such as clear food wrap, shopping bags and detergent bottles.

Then, using a technique known as backward trajectory analysis, they attempted to figure out where the plastic particles came from, and how they ended up in clouds in the first place.

“The backward trajectory analysis showed that the AMPs in cloud water sampled at the top of Mt. Fuji were mainly transported from [the] ocean,” Okochi wrote.

The researchers believe fine marine microplastics were dispersed into the atmosphere from waves splashing into the air.

SHAPE MATTERS

Shape matters with plastic particles, and according to a new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience this week, that shape plays a key role in how far they can travel in the atmosphere.

Scientists have long assumed these particles are basically spheres based on past models. Physicists even joke about how they are quick to make that assumption.

“We want to assume spherical everything,” said professor of atmospheric science at Cornell Natalie Mahowald, one of the authors of the study.

But that did not square with the fact that spherical particles are known to fall to the ground more quickly.

A group of researchers at Cornell University noticed that many of these particles might be shaped less like a ball and more like a ribbon.

This flatter shape would explain why they’re able to travel vast distances and end up in all of these remote places.

Through modelling, the researchers confirmed that a ribbon-shaped particle could travel much farther than a spherical one because they can stay in the atmosphere more than 450 per cent longer.

The researchers also found that the majority of microplastic particles they observed were flat. “This paper really shows using kind of elegant theory why these microplastic fibers can be transported just much farther than you would have thought if you thought they were a sphere,” Mahowald said.

THE CLIMATE

The mechanism by which microplastics in clouds could affect the climate still isn’t well understood, but Okochi explained that when plastic is degraded, it can provide a surface for water to adhere to.

That means clouds could form differently or disperse more quickly, potentially affecting temperature and rainfall.

Another paper published last year in the journal Nature Geoscience explored the potential impacts of airborne microplastics on the climate in greater depth.

“These particles are so small and light that they get transported to high altitudes… Here, they could get involved in cloud formation,” said one of the authors of the study Zamin Kanji.

If there are plastic particles in a cloud, water could condense around them, forming droplets and potentially ice crystals in the atmosphere, Kanji said. This could change how quickly clouds convert into rain, and the life cycle of a cloud, which has an important role in reflecting sunlight from the Earth.

Okochi also pointed out that strong ultraviolet radiation in the upper atmosphere could accelerate the degradation of the floating plastic particles, releasing greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide.

Both Okochi and Kanji noted that the concentration of microplastics in clouds is too low to affect temperature or rainfall significantly – for now. – Maggie Penman

INLE LAKE (AFP) – From a gently rocking boat, Nyunt Win tends a floating tomato crop in the cool water of Myanmar’s famed Inle Lake, nestled in the Shan Hills and once the country’s most popular tourist spot.

The floating farms have become as ubiquitous at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-recognised reserve as its famed houses on stilts and leg-rowing fishermen, but locals warn that the plantations are slowly choking the lake.

The ever-expanding farms are eating up surface area, sending chemical runoff into the waters, and clogging the picturesque site with discarded plant matter, opponents say.

Nyunt Win once farmed on dry land near Inle, but he told AFP the “productivity was not great”.

Several years ago he bought a share in a floating plantation and now makes MMK30,000 (USD14) per box of tomatoes.

“We’re not prosperous but we can rely on this for a living,” he said.

But aquaculture comes at a cost to the lake. The farms must be anchored in place and the produce shielded from the sun – mainly by invasive water hyacinths.

The weed grows rampantly on the surface of Inle, depleting oxygen levels by blotting out light for other plants, so it makes for a free and abundant building block for plantations.

Out on the lake, Si Thu Win heaves mounds of water hyacinths and other aquatic plants from the water to shore up and protect his plants.

“The (tomato) plants do not last long if it’s sunny,” he said. “To protect the roots, we have to cover them.”

Between 1992 and 2009, the portion of Inle covered by floating farms increased by 500 per cent, according to a report from Myanmar’s government.

And the area under cultivation has only expanded since then, residents said.

“Mass production” now means the price farmers get for their produce is lower, grumbled Si Thu Win.

The farms do not last forever and when they begin to rot, farmers cut them loose and build new ones, leaving rotting mounds of foliage to clog up the lakeshore.

Floating farms are “ruining” the lake, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation told AFP, requesting anonymity. Local authorities have tried to corral the drifting refuse into designated areas, but they do not have the resources to manage, he said.

“That’s why the lake is getting narrower,” the official said.

Farmers like Nyunt Win deny they are strangling the lake. They said the bigger problem is that decades of slash-and-burn agriculture on the surrounding hillsides have caused soil to wash into the streams that feed Inle, slowly filling it in.

“When I was young the water would cover the top of a 12-foot bamboo pole,” he said.

Now, during the summer months he can “pick up handfuls of soil” from his boat, he said.

The farm boom has pitted tomato cultivators against the fishermen who ply the lake, with 24-year-old Nay Tun Oo alleging that chemical runoff from the crops pollutes the water.

“When I was young and attending school, the water in the lake was not that bad,” he told AFP, adding that many species of fish that are good to eat can no longer be found.

A 2017 United Nations report found “considerable overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides” on floating farms, polluting the lake and damaging the surrounding ecosystem.

A new conservation law for Inle was proposed by the regional parliament in 2019 but has not progressed beyond a draft stage.

Businesses around the lake also worry that its shrinking surface and environmental degradation will drive tourists away.

“Our Inle lake area was very big when we were young,” said Kyaw Kyaw, 38, who owns a jewellery shop on the lake and employs 20 gold- and silversmiths.

“As there are too many floating farms, the water we use for drinking and washing isn’t clean anymore.”

Inle was once a major tourist destination, drawing around 200,000 foreigners and a million locals a year before the COVID-19 pandemic dented travel.

But there has been no recovery thanks to a military coup in 2021 and clashes between the junta and its opponents across swathes of the country.

Inle Lake lies in the southern part of Shan state, the far north of which has seen fierce fighting over the past two weeks between junta forces and ethnic armed groups.

“It has been three years already… and no foreigners are visiting here,” Kyaw Kyaw said.

Some of his metalsmiths are now learning other languages so they can go abroad for work, he said, while others are now working as carpenters.

Si Thu Win said he did not want to leave the lake.

“We are just happy living in Inle,” he said.

“We are also worried about the lake disappearing.”