Engineer on a green mission

The Star Online > North Monday April 21, 2008

Engineer on a green mission

By TAN SIN CHOW

A PENANG-BORN engineer has embarked on a mission to cycle over 9,000km covering Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and China to raise awareness on global warming.
Sam Yeoh, 30, is promoting cycling as the alternative mode of transportation which is pollution free throughout his mission.

He quit his job as a quality assurance engineer in Singapore recently just for the mission,
He is also selling the idea of vegetarian diet and adopting ‘Go Veggie, Go Green – Save Our Planet, Save Our Lives’ as his catchphrase during his trip.
Yeoh said he learnt about the danger of global warming while watching a documentary in December.

Long distance trip: (From left) Teh, Yeoh and Rinsche showing the routes to be taken for their cycling trip from Penang to Xiamen.
“I was shocked when National Aeronautics and Space Administra-tion (NASA) climate scientist Dr Jay Zwally predicted that nearly all the ice sheets could be gone from the Arctic Ocean by the end of summer 2012.

”As such, the rising of sea levels, extreme floods and worldwide catastrophes are expected to escalate, threatening the lives of millions of people,” he said when met at the Penang Municipal Park recently.

Yeoh completed his journey from Singapore to Penang in 18 days. Since March 10, he put up at bus stops, temples and friends’ houses.“So far, no untoward incidents had taken place,” said the lad from Teluk Kumbar in Penang, adding that he distributed flyers about the dangers of global warming to people along his journey.

And for the cycling trip to China, Yeoh will join Tanjong Bunga assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu and his navigator Errol Theodor Rinsche.Teh had earlier announced that he hoped to raise RM500,000 for six organisations in Penang through cycling.

They will embark on the journey on May 10 from Penang and are scheduled to reach Xiamen, China, within 50 days.From there, Yeoh said he would cycle alone for an additional two months before arriving at Beijing, China. After completing the journey, he will take either a flight or a train to Taiwan to continue his mission.

Yeoh said he spent only RM200 for his journey from Singapore to Penang and survived on vegetarian diet.

Those interested to know about their latest progress can log on to http://tourdelove.blogspot.com. For details, call 04-2825191 or Teh at 017-4729990.

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