Category: Environment

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Rampal: Project of Mass Destruction

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by Anis Raihan

[Originally in Bangla for Istishan; Translated by AlalODulal Collective]

Many countries, generally, bar construction of coal-based power plants, which cause dire environmental pollutions, within 15 to 20 kilometers of protected forests and settlements. The proposed 1320 megawatt Rampal coal-based power plant, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report, is only 14 kilometers from the Sundarbans, which is only four kilometers from the government’s designated 10 kilometers of Environmentally Critical Area — and hence, it has been claimed to be environmentally safe. Continue reading “Rampal: Project of Mass Destruction”

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Sundarbans in Grave Danger and Our Government’s inaction

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By Kallol Mustafa from Joymoni, Sundarbans
Translated by Tibra Ali for AlalODulal.org

Since the oil spill disaster started in the Sundarbans on the night of the 9th of December many ebbs and flows of the tide have come and gone. The thick and poisonous spilled oil reaches wherever the water reaches during the high tide, via the Shela river (where the disaster originated), Pasur and Baleshwari rivers, and the innumerable canals. Continue reading “Sundarbans in Grave Danger and Our Government’s inaction”

Environment1 Comment

Sundarbans’s Fight for Survival

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Anu Muhammad for Prothom Alo
Translated by Irfan Chowdhury for Alal O Dulal

Whenever we appeal to stop the destructive Rampal project and ORION coal based power plant, to safeguard our great Sundarbans, natural habitat of thousands of lives, whenever we ask to cancel Fulbari open pit project which damages a vast agricultural land and a large civilization, Continue reading “Sundarbans’s Fight for Survival”

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A Period of (Unprecedented) Consequences

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A Period of (Unprecedented) Consequences

by Risalat Khan for AlalODulal.org

But the world is changing. The seemingly disconnected events and trends are mere manifestations of something deeper – a neocolonial corporatocracy that controls virtually all major world affairs. It profits from the arms supplied to war and the culture of war, claims all of Mother Nature’s resources as property for its own greed, and condemns billions to poverty and starvation as casualties of progress. This social order – a dark evolution of the colonial era evils – is inculcated and protected by a system of unfettered neoliberal capitalism. But despite its meteoric rise to dominion, it is now desperately hiding the tears at its seams.
Continue reading “A Period of (Unprecedented) Consequences”
Culture, Environment3 Comments

Reingkhyong Lake: The Forgotten Frontier of Bangladesh

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By Devasish Roy-Wangza for AlalOdulal

About thirty-five of us – including six women and about ten local men porters – took a seven-day trek from Farua village within Farua Union (“For-ua” in Tanchangya), Bileisori sub-district of Rangamati hill district to Bethuni Para, Ruma sub-district, Bandarban hill district, all within the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in southeastern Bangladesh, from 22 to 28 December, 2011.The team included former Farua Union Parishad (UP) member, Jacob Tripura,

Continue reading “Reingkhyong Lake: The Forgotten Frontier of Bangladesh”

Environment, Neighbors1 Comment

Anu Muhammad: Their money-choked eyes refuse to see

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 Their money-choked eyes and brains refuse to see
by Anu Muhammad, Translated by Nusrat Chowdhury for AlalODulal.org

The Sundarbans are alive. It is home to a diverse wildlife. Some are seen; others exist out of our sight. It is like a grand life itself that includes the big and the small, the mobile and the sedentary.  Those dedicated to saving this grand life are also, no doubt, very alive. Continue reading “Anu Muhammad: Their money-choked eyes refuse to see”

Environment1 Comment

Beyond the Politics of Climate Change

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Beyond the Politics of Climate Change
by Farhad Mahmud for AlalODulal.org

Now is probably a watershed moment for the climate change debate. A concise summary of a section of IPCC’s long awaited 5th Assessment Report came out end September of this year, asserting that scientists are 95% convinced humans are the ‘dominant cause’ of global warming since the 1950s. The Report makes that claim despite observing an inexplicable ‘pause’ in warming since 1998, which it conspicuously downplays. This has brought the pitched battle between the climate skeptics and the climate evangelists to a new crescendo. Continue reading “Beyond the Politics of Climate Change”

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সহি রামপাল নামা – পার্ট ২ | সালফার কথন, আমাদের কার্বন গিল্ট এবং জলীয় দূষণের অভিযোগ বিশ্লেষণ

Zia Hassan

সহি রামপাল নামা – পার্ট ২ | সালফার কথন, আমাদের কার্বন গিল্ট এবং  জলীয় দূষণের অভিযোগ বিশ্লেষণ

সালফার কথন

সালফার ডাই অক্সায়িড এবং  নাইট্রোজেন ডাই অক্সাইড   কয়লা প্লান্ট এর সব চেয়ে ভয়ঙ্কর দুইটা একটা দূষণ| এদের মধ্যে সব চেয়ে ভয়ঙ্কর হলো সালফার  | কারণ, এর পরিমান টাও বেশি | এবং সালফার এর পরিমান এবং নিয়ন্ত্রণ কয়লা ভিত্তিক থার্মাল প্লান্ট এর অত্যনত গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ডিজাইন এবং অপেরাসনাল কন্সিডারেশান| কয়লার মধ্যে যে সালফার টা থাকে, তা অক্সিজেন এর সাথে বিক্রিয়া করে সালফার ডাই অক্সাইড প্রস্তুত করে যা বায়ু মন্ডলে ছড়িয়ে মানুষ এবং অন্যান্য প্রাণীর ফুসফুসে ঢুকে রক্তে ছড়িয়ে পরে| সালফার ডাই  অক্সাইড এর আর একটা ভয়ঙ্কর প্রভাব হলো সালফার বায়ু মন্ডলে মিশে এসিড বৃষ্টিপাত ঘটাতে পারে, যার ফলে একটা এলাকার গাছ পালা এবং পরিবেশ এর ভয়ঙ্কর ক্ষতি সাধন হতে পারে|

Continue reading “সহি রামপাল নামা – পার্ট ২ | সালফার কথন, আমাদের কার্বন গিল্ট এবং জলীয় দূষণের অভিযোগ বিশ্লেষণ”

Environment11 Comments

সহি রামপাল নামা – পর্ব ১

Zia Hassan
Source: https://scontent-b-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/p480x480/1379908_10201467830511623_1559543007_n.jpg

By Zia Hassan for AlaloDulal

রামপাল বিদ্যুত  কেন্দ্র স্হাপন নিয়ে পক্ষে বিপক্ষে অনেক আর্গুমেন্ট  আসছে |  আর্গুমেন্ট  গুলো আলাদা আলাদা ভাবে বোঝা যেমন ইম্পর্টান্ট তেমনি এক সাথে হোলিস্টিকলি দেখাটাও জরুরি|  কারণ এই ধরনের একটা জটিল ইস্যুতে দেখা যায় যে ,  আলাদা আলাদা ভাবে আমরা যেই সব উত্তর পাই, এক সাথে দেখতে গেলে অনেক ক্ষেত্রে ভিন্য উত্তর আসে | Continue reading “সহি রামপাল নামা – পর্ব ১”

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Kallol Mustafa: Dissenting voices within the Bangladesh Government on Rampal

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Kallol Mustafa: Dissenting voices within GoB on Rampal

Editor’s Note: This is a translation of a Facebook post published by Kallol Mustafa on the 23rd of June, 2013. The text of the original note, which is in Bengali, follows the translation.

A letter from the secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was sent to the Department of Environment and Forests of Bangladesh on the 22nd of June 2011. In that letter the Ramsar secretariat wanted to know more about the following three matters from the Ministry of Environment and Forests: Continue reading “Kallol Mustafa: Dissenting voices within the Bangladesh Government on Rampal”

Environment, Neighbors2 Comments

The Sundarbans and our guiltless sleep

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The Sundarbans and our guiltless sleep

by Tibra Ali for AlalODulal.org

In the south-west of Bangladesh stand the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The Sundarbans are home to countless unique species and varieties of animal and plant life, the most famous of which is the Royal Bengal Tiger that graces all the official emblems of Bangladesh. The Sundarbans are criss-crossed by rivers and tributaries, and because of their proximity to the Bay of Bengal, this is where the saline water of the Bay mingles with the fresh-water coming down from the Ganges. Continue reading “The Sundarbans and our guiltless sleep”

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The Indian Inter-river Linking Project and Bangladesh’s Looming Water Crisis

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A.K.M Wahiduzzaman

ভূমিকা

বাংলাদেশকে বলা হয় নদীমাতৃক দেশ। আক্ষরিক অর্থেই এই দেশটির জন্মদাত্রী মা হচ্ছে নদী। গঙ্গা,  ব্রহ্মপুত্র, মেঘনাসহ প্রায় ৭০০টি নদী-উপনদীর বয়ে আনা পলি লক্ষাধিক বছর ধরে জমে জমে এই দেশটির জন্ম হয়েছে। মাত্র ১,৪৭,৫৭০ বর্গ কিলোমিটার আয়তনের এই দেশে নদীর দৈর্ঘ্য প্রায় ২৪,১৪০ কিলোমিটার। Continue reading “The Indian Inter-river Linking Project and Bangladesh’s Looming Water Crisis”

Environment, Neighbors18 Comments

Rampal Electricity Plant and our Environmental Consciousness

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Rampal Electricity Plant and our Environmental Consciousness
A.K.M Wahiduzzaman and Mohammed Tawsif Salam  for AlaloDulal

Introduction
There is a rising energy demand in Bangladesh in proportion with the growth of its population. Given the near exponential growth of demand due to other factors like industrialization, we are now forced to explore non-government sources of energy from being reliant on government run power stations only. Continue reading “Rampal Electricity Plant and our Environmental Consciousness”