Environment
World Habitat Day: Habitats not just for humanity, but for life
Through the choppy waters of the Bay of Bengal, our speedboat twisted and turned trying to reach Sonadia Island.
Providing permanent support to the people of Tanguar Haor
I always wanted to take two photographs of the same spot of Tanguar Haor—one in the driest month of the year and one in the wettest.
Solving the climate change problem
The temperature in a small town in Eastern Russia, Verkhoyansk, located 10 kilometres above the Arctic circle, recently pushed to an astonishing 38 degrees Celsius—hotter than the annual average of Dhaka, Toronto, New York, or Los Angeles, during the same time of the year.
Desertification And Drought Day: The threat of parched land
Barsha-Kaal, or the rainy season, has officially arrived this week. If we were not shackled by Covid-19, we would have been welcoming monsoon with singing and dancing at public gatherings, arranging tree fairs, and planting hundreds and thousands of saplings all over the country. A perfect time to make our country greener!
Conservation delayed is conservation missed
In the middle of the devastating coronavirus crisis, we have come across some good news about the environment.
Why should you care about the air you breathe?
If you live in Dhaka, a city that is perennially drowned in a sea of polluted air, you may think that a scarlet sunrise or sunset blazing across the horizon is a sight to behold.
A breath of not so fresh air
We all know that the air quality in Dhaka is bad. Anyone living in the city only has to clean a surface at home in the morning and see the visible layer of dust magically reappear by the time you return from work, or spend a little time outdoors and just feel the air in your throat to know there is a real problem. But how bad is it truly? And are there insights that the data can reveal to us?
Save the environment, not posters
With the Dhaka City Corporation election ready to roll out next month, the capital is brimming with a palpable air of electoral mood.
Alarming plastic pollution in the Bay of Bengal
Plastics play a vital role in our daily life. However, plastic debris in the marine environment has serious negative impacts on marine resources, fisheries as well as on the use of coastal areas for tourism. It is also a threat to our precious Blue Economy.
Despite global climate extremes, why is climate action so slow?
Over a hundred people have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced in the first few weeks of the South Asian monsoon this year.
The inextricable link between water scarcity and poverty
When I was visiting a museum in Athens last year, one of my Greek friends was explaining to me about an ancient water supply canal that went through underneath the museum. It was amazing to see that the authorities in Athens realised the importance of providing clean water for its newly urbanised citizens, even thousands of years ago.
Environmental challenges dictate need for South Asian peace
Despite serious discord and disputes between the countries of South Asia, the concept of a common future of the region based on increasing cooperation among the people and governments has somehow survived because of strong geographical, economic and cultural factors.
America’s ‘Last Frontier’ is slowly becoming the ‘Lost Frontier’
Nick-Named the “Last Frontier”, Alaska is the largest state (in area) of the United States. It is also one of the richest states, thanks to its abundance of natural resources, such as oil, natural gas, gold and fish. The state is home to a vast expanse of pristine wilderness, towering mountains, breathtaking glaciers and big game animals.
Is it time for a water tax in the apparel sector?
Imagine if you had in your hands an extremely precious resource. While you have lots of this resource, you only have a finite amount—it won’t last forever.
Banning zoos, ‘rewilding’, and tackling climate change
As a six-year-old obsessed and fascinated with the wild, I remember asking my mother once: “How do tigers protect the environment?”
Miscarriage on the rise: Effects of climate change in coastal Bangladesh
Most people felt the temperature this summer was higher than previous years, and that it has become intolerable.
Why thorium is a safer nuclear option
The picture is crystal clear. Human activity will soon drive the climate crisis all across our planet to the tipping point unless we rapidly transform the ways in which we produce and consume energy. While renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures can help dramatically cut emissions of greenhouse gases, they are not the panacea for the climate change related problems that we have created.
Ozone: An emerging air pollutant in Dhaka City
The fact depicted by recent global surveys that Dhaka is the second most air-polluted capital city of the world is surely not delighting for anyone. Several sporadic scientific studies were carried out in the last 25 years to characterise the composition of air pollutants of Dhaka city.