Dhaka – Expariate Bangladeshis at a discussion meeting in New York on 16 May underscored the need for increasing mass awareness about problem of river water the people of Bangladesh are facing and urged the government to take steps in…
Category: Environment
Man cooks egg on road in Odisha’s intense heat wave
New Delhi – Even as Odisha is experiencing an intense heat wave with temperatures touching 45 degree Celsius in some places, a man took to cooking an egg on the road to demonstrate just how bad the situation is! UNB…
In Sylhet, court orders come a cropper against illegal stone mining
Sylhet – An influential syndicate continues to extract stone from some 14 acres of privately owned land at Kandubasti in Chailakhal, adjacent to the Piain River in Sylhet’s Gowainghat, in violation of court orders. UNB news agency reported
Heat wave continues in north China
China’s national observatory issued a yellow alert on Friday for high temperatures, the least serious in a three- tier warning system, with some northern provinces expected to see temperatures of up to 39 degrees Celsius.
The great British bee count: foe, UK
TV presenters *Michaela Strachan* and *Ellie Harrison* are urging people to take part in Friends of the Earth’s Great British Bee Count, which begins today (Friday, 19 May 2017) and runs until 30 June. The Bee Count is also being…
Agony of mother earth world’s forests depleted for fuel
By Baher Kamal This is the second of a two-part series on how humankind has been systematically destroying world’s forests—the real lungs of Mother Earth. Part I dealt with the relentless destruction of forests. ROME, May 19 2017 (IPS) –…
Minister’s son among 11 held in Pabna vandalism case
Pabna, May 19 – Police arrested 11 people, including Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sherif’s son Sirhan Sharif Tamal, in a case filed for vandalism early Friday.
Agony of mother earth: Unstoppable destruction of forests
By Baher Kamal ROME, May 18 2017 (IPS) – The world’s forests are being degraded and lost at a staggering rate of 3.3 million hectares per year. While their steady destruction in many Asian countries continues apace, deforestation of the…
Defence of water right drives land reform call in Chile
By Orlando Milesi Santiago, May 18 (IPS) – Water at high prices, sold as a market good, and small farmers almost a species in extinction, replaced by seasonal workers, are the visible effects of the crisis in rural Chile, 50…
Mapping and responding to climate-induced migration
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, May 18 (IPS) – As the world focuses on conflict-related migration and displacement, with an unprecedented 60 million fleeing from war and persecution, others are pointing to a less discussed trigger of population movements: climate change.
Creating future-ready education system: The EarthEd
Our latest State of the World report, EarthEd: Rethinking Education on a Changing Planet! We had people tuned in from over 54 countries and 36 states, including watch parties in Thailand, Texas, and the District of Columbia. If you weren’t…
In climate talks, it’s always been America first
The shadow of Donald Trump looms large over the climate-rescue Paris Agreement, thrashed out by nearly 200 countries over years of painstaking, often belligerent, bartering in which the United States has a chequered history. As power has changed hands between…
Cauvery suffers a slow death – urbanisation flourishes
(Editor’s (firstpost.com) note: This is the fourth piece in a multi-part series on the nature of human excesses that have imperiled the fragile ecosystem of the Western Ghats, home to at least 325 globally threatened species of flora and fauna,…
Changed climate befool Dhaka cadamba tree to flower early
Dhaka, May 18 – Changed climate conditions not only make life full of uncertainties at times, but also befool plants and trees. Mostly cloudy sky with intermittant rainall of the last fortnight has made this neolamarckia cadamba tree in Dhaka…
“Queens Schools off-limits for Federal Immigration Agents”
New York Correspondent Queens Borough President Melinda Katz stated the following in response to questions about federal immigration agents showing up last Thursday at P.S. 58 in Maspeth and seeking a fourth-grader: “As a mother, I am deeply troubled and…
Revive Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel to spare Shela of Sunderbans
Terming the commercial operation of vessels in the Sundarban’s rivers ‘a grave threat’, the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCRSRR) urged the government on Wednesday that it should keep the Mongla-Ghashiakhali river route operational round the year,…
What happened to climate’s poster child?
The 28-member European Union, the third-largest emitter of planet-warming greenhouse gases after China and the United States, has long been held up as the poster child of efforts to save Earth’s climate. But after years of taking the lead in…
Indian national held with cigarettes at Shahjalal airport
Dhaka – Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) seized huge quantities of foreign cigarettes from an Indian citizen at Shahjalal International Airport early Wednesday. UNB news agency reported
Climate change has changed geography of Honduras
By Thelma Mejía Balfate, Honduras, May 15 (IPS) – In Balfate, a rural municipality that includes fishing villages and small farms along Honduras’ Caribbean coast, the effects of climate change are already felt on its famous scenery and beaches. The…
Genetically engineered disappointments
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Tan Zhai Gen Kuala Lumpur, May 16 (IPS) – Advocates of genetically engineered (GE) crops have long claimed that genetic engineering is necessary to raise crop yields and reduce human exposure to agrochemicals. Genetic engineering…
One killed as nor’wester hits Bogra
Bogra – A man was killed as a nor’wester lashed several upazilas of the district on Monday. UNB news agency reported
Scientists find 38 million pieces of trash on Pacific island
Wellington – When researchers traveled to a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces of trash washed up on the beaches. AP/UNB news agency reported
The superhighway threatening Nigeria’s tropical rainforest
When bulldozers rolled into their forest at the start of last year, the Ekuri community in southeast Nigeria protested: “Indigenes say no!” They didn’t want a superhighway that would wipe their ancestral lands in the Cross River National Park off…
Dying Guatemala lake underlines climate change threat
The dried-out oyster shells lie on a landscape parched and cracked by the sun. This is what is left of Lake Atescatempa, once a vast blue-green body of water in southwestern Guatemala. Now the lake is dying, a conspicuous victim…
Govt, civil society urged to work for global migration compact
Speakers at a seminar here today urged the government and civil society to work together for preparing the UN Global Compact on Migration and Refugees. The UN General Assembly in 2016 adopted a resolution to prepare Global Compact on Migration…
Address global warming posthaste
By Dean Baker There are two enormous myths about global warming. One is that dealing with it is optional. The other is that the measures needed to slow the process will devastate the economy. Neither is true. On the first…
‘BD on verge of having nuke cente for govt’s farsight’
Dhaka – Bangladesh is for the first time on the brink of setting up nuclear power centre due to farsighted and time-befitting policy of the present government, said Science and Technology Minister Architect Yafesh Osman on Monday.
Comptroller Stringer proposes new Public-Private NYC Citizenship Fund
New York – With the Trump Administration ratcheting up its attacks on immigrant communities, including more frequent raids, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer today called for the creation of a public-private New York City Citizenship Fund to help tens of thousands…
Developed countries trying to reinterpret Paris Deal: G77
Bonn, 12 May (T Ajit)- The G77 and China said that developed countries are intending to reinterpret the Paris Agreement (PA) by their stance in the negotiations at the Bonn climate talks. At the contact group meeting of the UNFCCC’s…
US nuclear site’s collapsed tunnel may have gone unnoticed
Spokane – The large sinkhole that caved in a tunnel filled with radioactive waste at a sprawling Washington state nuclear waste repository may have gone unnoticed for days before its discovery because workers do not patrol tunnel sites daily, a…