By John Vidal in Gazipara, www.guardian.co.uk 9 May 2012 Rebecca Sultan’s life has been shattered twice in a few years. First, the 140mph winds of Cyclone Sidr ripped through her village, Gazipara, flattening houses, killing 6,000 people and devastating the lives of millions as it slammed into southern Bangladesh in 2007. Then, 18 months later, […]
By Samuel Nota, alertnet 14 March 2012 After 20 years dominated by inaction on climate change, the world is entering a “third era” when the impacts of climate change are unavoidable, says a London climate expert. Even if countries instantly reduced carbon emissions to zero, the impacts of emissions already in the atmosphere are “inevitable […]
NEW YORK, New York, 15 February 2012 (ENS) – Bangladesh has established three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, the Sundarbans. Officially declared on January 29, the sanctuaries are intended to protect the last two remaining species of freshwater dolphins in Asia – the Ganges River dolphin, Platanista […]
By DAN MORRISON20 January 2012 DHAKA, Bangladesh – Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s foreign minister chided the world’s developed nations for failing to honor their pledge to help this low-lying, water-logged nation adapt to the effects of climate change. Of the $30 billion that poor countries were promised three years ago, just $2.5 billion have been […]
By Navin Singh Khadka, Environment reporter, BBC News6 January 2012 A rapid rise in air pollution from fossil fuels and biomass burning has worsened winter smog and extended its duration in many parts of South Asia, scientists and officials have said. In Bangladesh, India, and Nepal the temperature has plummeted and clouds of fog and […]
By George Webster, for CNN23 December 2011 When Tropical Storm Washi ripped through the southern Philippine city of Cagayan de Oro last weekend, it dumped in one day more than the city’s entire average rainfall for the month of December. According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, a total of 181 millimeters […]
By Tom Levitt30 September 2011 The popularity of tropical shrimp – often marketed as scampi, giant shrimp, gambas or tiger prawns – is having a devastating impact on local communities in Bangladesh, reveals a new investigation produced in conjunction with the Ecologist’s film partner. Sales of frozen prawns have soared in recent years, eaten deep-fried, […]
By Evan V. Symon 6 September 2011 If you turn on the news and hear that some city is being devastated by its fourth flood in 20 years, or that a village at the foot of some volcano has just been buried under lava, there is a 100 percent chance that someone in the room […]
Dhaka (AFP) June 13, 2011 – Bangladesh’s vast ship-breaking yards are roaring back into business, after the easing of strict environmental regulations that brought the major industry to a halt for much of 2010. A High Court ruling on March 7 reversed a series of 2010 court verdicts — fought for by environmental activists — […]
By Kamrul Hasan Khan (AFP)24 December 2010 CHAR PALIAMARY, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s rivers have provided for fisherman Rafiqul Islam’s family for generations but a few years ago the 27-year-old noticed his nets were coming up empty. This year, Islam was forced to leave his small fishing community in northern Mymensingh district to find work, an […]
