Environment

San Francisco has opened its first safe parking area for people who are living in vehicles, with an aim to remove homeless people from the streets amid a rising homelessness crisis in the western coastal U.S. city. Read More »

Immigration through Tamabil customs station in Gowainghat upazila here came to a sudden halt on Friday morning after a curfew was imposed in India’s Meghalaya state following escalation of tension there over the National Citizenship Bill. Read More »

The Hague, December 10, 2019 – Twenty-eight years to the day after Aung San Suu Kyi’s husband and sons accepted her Nobel Peace Prize while she remained under house arrest in Myanmar, the former pro-democracy icon appeared in a United Nations court ready to defend her country’s army from allegations of committing genocide against the Rohingya minority. Read More »

Refugees and people displaced within countries because of conflict are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather, experts say. Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 10 – A mobile court on Monday evicted five brickfields and fined the owners Tk 20 lakh at Baluchor union of Sirajdikhan Upazila on charges of polluting the environment. Read More »

Dhaha, Dec 10 – Seven Nobel peace laureates called on Aung San Suu Kyi to publicly acknowledge crimes, including genocide, committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar. Read More »

December 9, 2019 SANDRP The Hindustan Times editorial on Nov 27, 2019, has rightly said the following about “a recently-released Rejuvenating-Ganga River – A Citizen-Report, by the India Rivers Week, a consortium of seven NGOs”. “A key reason for the failure of the river cleaning projects (Ganga and Yamuna action plans), says a recently-released citizen’s report, Rejuvenating Ganga, by the ... Read More »

By Askiah Adam The Rohingya refugees have, for decades now, been fleeing their homeland, the Rakhine province in Myanmar. Mostly through Yangon’s inaction, elements of the military and members of the majority Buddhist population were left to run rampage amongst this helpless Muslim minority. Made stateless by Yangon in 1982, left totally vulnerable to the frightful violence of rape, mass ... Read More »

The hearing on genocide by Myanmar against Rohingyas is all set to begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday in The Hague, Netherlands as the Gambia asked the top UN court to urgently order measures “to stop Myanmar’s genocidal conduct.” Bosnia and Herzegovina had asked for provisional measures when filing its Genocide Convention case against the Federal ... Read More »

Panchagarh, Dec 9 – The minimum temperature in the district of Panchagarh dropped below 10 degrees Celsius on Sunday, hinting at a rough winter ahead. Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 8 – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday distributed the prestigious National Film Award for the years 2017 and 2018 among its recipients. Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 7 – Two passenger buses, including a double-decker BRTC bus, caught fire in the city’s Karwan Bazar and Kurmitola areas on Saturday. Read More »

By Yasmine Sherif UNITED NATIONS, Dec 6 2019 (IPS) – Genesis smiles and holds her hand up proudly to answer questions in class. She claps her hands in support of her classmates when they answer the teachers’ questions correctly. “I miss my cousins and aunts in Venezuela, she says.” Her smile fades and her lips tighten. She struggles to hold ... Read More »

Dhaka, Dec 7 – When they left the country for Algeria a few months back with dreams of changing their fate, they all were ecstatic. Now they feel trapped and are living in inhuman conditions in the North African country. Read More »

by Carlo Ratti VENICE – Some of the worst floodings in Venice’s history has submerged some of the historic city’s renowned cultural sites, including St. Mark’s Basilica on Piazza San Marco. This is only the sixth time the basilica has been flooded in 1,200 years, but the fourth time in the last two decades, and the second time in under ... Read More »

by Sally Jewell WASHINGTON, DC – When world leaders gather at the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid from December 2-13, they will discuss concrete steps for meeting and increasing national emissions-reduction targets. But equally important, COP25 offers an opportunity to elevate one of the most powerful tools we have to address climate change: nature. Read More »

by Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Angela Valenzuela MADRID – For more than a year, children and young people from around the world have been striking for the climate. We launched a movement that defied all expectations, with millions of people lending their voices – and their bodies – to the cause. Read More »

By Samira Sadeque UN, Dec 3 2019 (IPS) – On Nov. 11, Gambia filed a lawsuit against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice for the southeast asian country’s atrocities against the Rohingya population. Read More »

Garcetti declares the 2020s the make-or-break decade for the climate crisis and commits to a Global Green New Deal London, UK, 02 December 2019 – Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti today assumed his role as the new chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group — a collection of the world’s largest cities committed to taking bold action to ... Read More »

DHAKA  – David James Molden, Director General (DG) of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a regional intergovernmental organisation, has underscored the need for more cooperation among the member countries to face climate change impacts and build adaptation. “In this region, we need a lot more cooperation among the member countries to really address some of the energy ... Read More »

Mass protests, a last-minute venue change and talk of climate tipping points are adding some unplanned drama to this year’s international talks on tackling global warming. Read More »

Dhaka, Nov 30 – Bangladesh’s capital city ranked the fourth worst in Air Quality Index (AQI) on Saturday morning. Dhaka had a score of 192 at 8am, which means the air quality was ‘unhealthy’. Read More »

Sydney, Nov 27 – Millions of baby corals have been successfully transplanted onto damaged sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, utilizing a cutting edge technique involving robots and giant inflatable nurseries, researchers said on Wednesday. Read More »

Dhaka, Nov 27 – Thirty-five more Bangladeshi female workers have sent a video message from Saudi Arabia with fervent SOS (save our souls) calls to be rescued. Read More »

The government will plant 10 million saplings across the country marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Read More »

Dhaka, Nov 27 – Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Md Atiqul Islam on Tuesday said they are working to build Dhaka as an inclusive city so that people from all walks of life can commute safely and easily. Read More »

London, 26 November: Freetown, Sierra Leone is the newest member of C40 Cities. Freetown joins 93 cities worldwide committed to delivering on the highest ambitions of the Paris Agreement and to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5°C. Read More »

Dhaka, Nov 26 – The High Court on Tuesday ordered the authorities concerned to shut down all the illegal brick kilns in Dhaka and its surrounding areas — Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Gazipur and Manikganj — within 15 days to reduce air pollution in the capital city. Read More »

By Farhana Haque Rahman Farhana Haque Rahman is Senior Vice President of IPS Inter Press Service; a journalist and communications expert, she is a former senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Read More »

Dhaka, Nov 26 – As the dry season sets in, the pollution level in the capital reached its extreme level due to uncontrolled discharge of dust from construction works and road digging, posing serious health risks to the city dwellers, say environment and health experts. Read More »