Potential threats to the rare Sumatran rhino, coral reefs,
and other fragile animals helped galvanize a highly publicized fight
last year to stop a coal-fired plant from being built on the east coast
of Sabah, Malaysia.
The activists were armed with
evidence that renewable energy such as hydropower, geothermal, and waste
from the region’s abundant oil palm mills could compete with coal in
costs.
Activists won the impassioned battle when government
officials killed the plant in February 2011. But they haven’t yet
achieved their goal of getting this ecotourism destination—one of the
most biologically diverse spots on earth—to go renewable and serve as a
model for other environmentally sensitive areas around the globe.
