The director-general of the Environmental Protection Agency Rafiuddin Ahmed has said that initial inquiry report into contamination of a part of Keenjhar Lake establishes presence of the pollutant elements, including urea, but fails to point out their sources.

Talking to reporters at the EPA office here on Wednesday, the DG said that urea was cause of the lake water’s contamination but its source was not yet unknown. The EPA had set up a committee to probe the contamination, which submitted the initial report on May 11, he said.

New research suggests that global warming is causing the cycle of evaporation and rainfall over the oceans to intensify more than scientists had expected, an ominous finding that may indicate a higher potential for extreme weather in coming decades.

By measuring changes in salinity on the ocean’s surface, the researchers inferred that the water cycle had accelerated by about 4 percent over the last half century. That does not sound particularly large, but it is twice the figure generated from computerized analyses of the climate.

A new genre of electric power-generating stations could supply electricity for more than a half billion people by tapping just one-tenth of the global potential of a little-known energy source that exists where rivers flow into the ocean, a new analysis has concluded. A report on the process, which requires no fuel, is sustainable and releases no carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas, appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The Sunderbans, spreading across Bangladesh and West Bengal, is fast emerging as the climate change flashpoint of the globe. Despite the warning signals of increased frequency of cyclones and tidal floods. The West Bengal government has drawn up a massive project to expand the Haldia port which will directly impact the western Sunderbans region.
Environmentalists already complain against increasing oil spillage from vessels in and around the Mongia Port that are adversely affecting its biodiversity.

India's Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia yesterday said a variety of environmental, economic and technical issues need to be settled before implementation of the ambitious inter-linking of rivers.

Referring to the Himalayan component of rivers inter-linking, Ahluwalia said “effective exploitation” of capacity of these rivers is critically dependent on the international agreements.

Rapid decline in aquifer level has exposed parts of the southwestern region to huge saline water intrusion into ground, surface waters and soil to affect crops and ecology, say experts.

“Saline water is penetrating further into the mainland of southwestern region to affect the only remaining freshwater pocket of the Tentulia River and the Meghna estuary”, Dr M Eftekharul Alam, expert, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), told the news agency.

CUTTACK: Assistant Director-General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr RP Dua on Tuesday stressed the need for provisioning quality seeds to the farmers for achieving the goals of food security. Inaugurating the three-day Regional Agriculture Fair at the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) here, Dr Dua said there should be a coordinated approach on the issue from research outputs to making quality seeds adequately available to the farmers at the grassroots.

THE Sundarban forest is going to face a slow process of extinction with the setting up of the proposed coal-fired mega power plant in its vicinity. The government has decided to set up the 1350MW capacity power plant in the ecologically most sensitive zone closer to the forest. The power plant will pose serious threat to the forest's biodiversity as well as wildlife, including Royal Bengal Tigers. Setting up a power plant is a timely decision of the government, but the big question is its siting. Why it should be so close to the forest? The UNESCO has declared as a world heritage site.

A recent study discovered that many Tel Aviv wells are polluted beyond suitability as drinking water sources. Data collected by the Health Ministry and Water Authority showed that 96 of a total 166 wells in the Tel Aviv area were closed due to contamination. Nearly two-thirds of the wells have been shuttered since 1980, when all 166 were in full operation. The pollution has been caused by two types of activities. First, contaminants from armament manufacturing, agricultural runoff and sewage systems seep into the groundwater table.

According to press reports: Environment and Forests Minister Hasan Mahmud said at a seminar on Thursday that Bangladesh loses 1.5 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as more natural disasters caused by climate change impacts hit the country now." The negative impacts include flood, draught, salinity, cyclone, and sea level rise. These natural disasters are leading to fall in GDP growth," he said. The minister described Bangladesh as "an innocent victim," as the country lies at the bottom on the list of the most carbon releasing countries.