Energy Bangla

The death toll in the powerful earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday has risen to 758, a home ministry official said, of which 467 were in the Kathmandu Valley that is the most heavily populated part of the Himalayan country. The earthquake also sent tremors through northern India while toppling a 19th-century tower in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu and triggering a fatal avalanche on Mount Everest. There were reports of... »

KATHMANDU, April 25, 2015 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll from a massive earthquake which devastated large parts of Nepal on Saturday has risen to 449, according to police. “The death toll based on information received on our network across the country has reached 449,” national police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam told AFP. “Deaths have been reported from all regions except the far west. All our security personnel have been deployed... »

LOS ANGELES, April 8, 2015 (BSS/AFP) – Oil giant Shell filed a legal complaint Tuesday against Greenpeace protestors who have boarded an Arctic-bound oil rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a spokeswoman said. The six activists are camping out on the 38,000-tonne Polar Pioneer platform, which they boarded 750 miles northwest of Hawaii using inflatable boats from the Greenpeace vessel “Esperanza.” “These acts are far from peaceful demonstrations,”... »

The World Meteorological Day is being observed in Bangladesh today like other countries in the world highlighting the huge contribution that National Meteorological and Hydrological Services make to the safety and well-being of society. The theme of this year is “Climate knowledge for climate action”, that provides an opportunity to take stock of the climate knowledge built in the last decades as an essential base to support the path towards... »

Britain experienced its first big solar eclipse for 16 years on Friday, leaving commuters to make their way into work under darkened skies. Watchful electricity grid operators, expectant scientists and excited schoolchildren saw the beginnings of the eclipse as a sliver of moon began to pass between the earth and the sun at around 8:30am. The peaked happened at about 9:30am — and wound down at around 10:40am. The eclipse... »

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised $500 million from an inaugural green bond issue, aimed at channeling more investor funds to ADB projects that promote low-carbon and climate-resilient economic growth and development in developing Asia. “Asia is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change but at the same time is an increasing user of energy, water and other resources,” said Pierre Van Peteghem, ADB’s Treasurer. “ADB... »

DHAKA, Feb 25, 2015 (BSS)- Stressing the need for developing different variety of climate-resilient crops, President Abdul Hamid today urged the agriculturists to make agricultural research, education, training and expansion more integrated and modern. “The big challenge for our agriculture is to fulfill the demand of food of the country’s huge population along with facing the situation of climate change . . . for this reason we need to make... »

LONDON, Feb 23, 2015 (BSS/AFP) – Chocolate lovers take heart: a steamy greenhouse near London is helping to ensure that cocoa crops globally remain disease-free and bountiful to cope with the growing appetite for sweet treats. On a winter morning, the temperature is a chilly eight degrees Celsius but inside the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre (ICQC), which simulates tropical conditions, the air is a balmy 23 degrees. “Cocoa plants are... »

GENEVA, Feb 8, 2015 (BSS/AFP) – UN climate negotiators gathered in Geneva were urged Sunday to show urgency and compromise in crafting a draft by next week for a global pact to be signed in December. “I ask you to work with efficiency and a sense of compromise,” Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru’s environment minister and president of the negotiations told the opening session of a six-day huddle. Pointing to scientific warnings... »

Defying the recommendations of the UN experts and environmentalists, the government yesterday decided to allow vessels to ply through the Shela river in the Sundarbans from wednesday, apparently in the face of pressure from river transport workers. The decision came from an inter-ministerial meeting at the shipping ministry tuesday with Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan in the chair. The meeting said vessels can ply the Shela river route in a “controlled... »