By Muntasir Akash The smallest of the planet’s 13 otter species finds its habitat shrinking every day. We know little about these mustelids — especially in Bangladesh, where I conduct my research — but they face a horde of threats. Species Name and Description: The Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus) has a typical otter build […]
By Genevieve Belmaker and Joseph Charpentier Throughout 2018, forests continued to be threatened and destroyed. From the Amazon, to the Congo Basin, to the Mekong Delta and scores of places in between—journalists reporting for Mongabay filed hundreds of stories about the world’s forests. Although the significance of any one story is difficult to gauge in […]
By Joyce J. Chen and Valerie Mueller Salt is essential for cooking, but too much salt in soil can ruin crops and render fields useless. According to legend, Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus sowed the soils of Carthage with salt after conquering the city during the Punic Wars. And after defeating the Italian town of […]
Thursday is World Animal Day, a day dedicated to improving the well-being of animals across the planet. “To achieve this, we encourage animal welfare organisations, community groups, youth and children’s clubs, businesses and individuals to organize events in celebration of World Animal Day. Involvement is growing at an astonishing rate and it’s now widely accepted […]
By Kieran Cooke As another monsoon season begins, huge numbers of homeless Bangladeshis are once again bracing themselves against the onslaught of floods and the sight of large chunks of land being devoured by rising water levels. Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal, is low-lying and crisscrossed by a web of rivers: two thirds of […]
Bangladesh was No. 6 on the Long Term Climate Risk Index of countries most affected by climate change from 1997 to 2016. The United Nations contents that climate change disproportionately impacts women, since they are more likely to be poor and dependent on local resources. It is hopeful, then, that the UN’s Green Climate Fund […]
By Jeremy Lent Imagine you’re driving your shiny new car too fast along a wet, curvy road. You turn a corner and realize you’re heading straight for a crowd of pedestrians. If you slam on your brakes, you’d probably skid and damage your car. So you keep your foot on the accelerator, heading straight for […]
By Andy Rowell As much of the North American media focuses on the ongoing unprecedented flooding and relief efforts in Texas and now potentially Louisiana, another tragedy is unfolding, which is going largely unreported, in Asia. Whereas the death toll in Texas stands at 20, the death toll in South Asia is estimated at 1,200 […]
On Jan. 13, the MV Aichgati, a large bulk cargo vessel carrying 1,000 tons of coal, sank in the estuary of the Pashur River in the Sundarbans World Heritage Site. In addition to the large amount of coal, hundreds of gallons of fuel oil, batteries and other toxic contaminants may now be polluting the Sundarbans. […]