by Stephen Leonard Jakarta – Earlier this year in Myanmar, torrential rain caused mudslides that wiped out hundreds of houses and caused large-scale crop destruction. More than 1.3 million people were affected, and over 100 died. In Vietnam, the same…
The howler monkeys whose guttural calls reverberate through Central and South American rainforests possess a secret that the males of the species may prefer to be left unrevealed.Howler monkeys make among the loudest, deepest sounds of any land animal, and…
The 13th annual general meeting (AGM) of Bangladesh Water Partnership on Saturday was told its activities in the coming year would concentrate more on promotion of climate change adaptation through capacity building, help improve sustainable water management and climate change…
The lead author of the 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate change says that although there will be an agreement at the UN climate conference in Paris in December, it is what happens afterwards that is crucial.
The United States and other rich nations are doing less than their fair share to fight climate change under a UN accord due in December while China is outperforming, a report by 18 civil society groups said on Monday.Overall, governments’…
Alina Paul Floods followed by drought have led to a 30 per cent reduction in Malawi’s maize harvest and left the country facing its most severe food crisis for over ten years. Between now and March, more than two million…
A new tool to assist developing countries in designing a “custom made” plant variety protection suitable for the seed and agricultural systems that prevail in developing countries has been published by an international group of NGOs. It was presented on…
An international team of scientists has identified potential ‘tipping points’ where abrupt regional climate shifts due to global warming could result in natural disasters.They found evidence of 41 cases of regional abrupt changes in the ocean, sea ice, snow cover,…
British scientists are using aircraft packed with high-tech air monitoring equipment to predict what is happening in the lower atmosphere as the climate warms. While the extra heat in the oceans and on land, which can be measured, is known…
The 6th Islamic conference of Envronment Ministers held in Rabat, Morocco on 8 – 9 October 2015 (the largest convening of Muslim-world Environment Ministers), facilitates agreement amongst Environment Ministers on a number of steps to tackle climate change and challenges…
The ‘Save Sundarbans March’ which was launched by Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (BSD) on October 13 aiming to raise awareness against all environmentally destructive activities in the world’s largest mangrove forest, will be ended in…
Experts yesterday emphasized for ensuring sustainable technology, identification of vulnerable infrastructures and its remedy to reduce causalities from the risk of natural disasters.
Dhaka – Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said climate change induced disaster displaced people have the right to survive and all need to look at the displaced persons’ ‘choice’ and ‘ability’ to move elsewhere.
Negotiators have several terms for the way they plan to enforce any deal reached at global climate talks in Paris this December. “Peer pressure” and “cooperation” are a couple. “Race to the top” is the American buzzword.What you won’t hear…
Kelle Louaillier and Bill McKibben Boston – Over the last few years, a growing number of people have been taking a hard look at what is happening to our planet – historic droughts, rising sea levels, massive floods – and…
By Vaidehi Shah Abbas Pada, 45, pulls rickshaws through the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh for a living. Every evening, he returns to his living quarters in a slum, where he calculates how much of the day’s meagre earnings goes to…
Some 30 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident blasted radiation across Chernobyl, the site has evolved from a disaster zone into a nature reserve, teeming with elk, deer and wolves, scientists said on Monday.The remarkable turnaround in the area,…
The Election Commission (EC) has sought information over Rohingya refugees from three ministries with a view to keeping them out of the country’s voter list.
A Scottish company has developed a commercial scale method of producing biofuel capable of fuelling cars from the unwanted residue of the whisky fermentation process.Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables developed its process of producing biobutanol at industrial scale in Belgium and was…
India has promised to shave a third off the rate at which it emits greenhouse gases over the next 15 years, in a long-awaited contribution towards reaching a deal to slow global warming at a UN climate summit in December.The…
There is no alternative to creating social awareness and comprehensive efforts by all concerned for ensuring pollution-free rivers, which are lifelines for ecology, economy, biodiversity and heritage of the nation.The opinion came this afternoon at a post-walkathon discussion organised by…
Dhaka – Participants at a sanitation conference on Saturday revealed that only one percent people in Bangladesh defecate in the open. “The rate of open defecation in Bangladesh is now only one percent which was about 34 percent even in…
A warning that climate change might make the world’s stock markets and banks unstable and lead to a financial crash has come from Mark Carney, chairman of the G20 countries’ Financial Stability Board. Carney, who is also Governor of the…
Enhanced cultivation of high yielding zinc-enriched rice can ensure food and nutrition security preventing deficiency of zinc, iron and vitamin-A for normal growth of children and increasing disease resistant capacity.Experts viewed this at a farmers’ field day organised by RDRS…
By Jessica Cheam Singapore: Air pollution brought about by illegal fires raging in Indonesia hit new hazardous records in Southeast Asia this past week and even triggered the closure of schools in Singapore for the first time last Friday. Apart…
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has received the highest environmental accolade of the United Nations Environmental Programme-(UNEP), ‘The Champions of the Earth’, award in recognition of Bangladesh’s far-reaching initiatives in addressing problems induced by climate change. UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner…
Switzerland has temporarily banned the sale of Volkswagen (VW) diesel-engine models which could have devices capable of tricking emission tests. It said the move could affect 180,000 cars – not yet sold or registered – in the Euro5 emission category.…
Twenty-five fishermen were kidnapped by forest robbers from Kakrakhali canal of the Sundarbans under Shyamnagar upazila on Monday. Seven of the victims were identified as Rafiqul, 38, Mazid, 28, Sannasi, 38, Kawsar, 55, Khokon, 25, Amirul, 28, and Farid, 35.…
Prakash Bhandar Europe is facing an unprecedented refugee situation as desperate families from war-torn Syria and political crises-ridden Hungary are making a beeline for various countries there, travelling long distances by train, road, rickety boats and even walking to reach…
Jeffrey D. Sachs , Enrico Giovannini , Robert Chen and Shaida Badiee New York – There is growing recognition that the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will be adopted on September 25 at a special United Nations…