Our Picks
Solar Dreams
By Himansshu Bhatt, Times of India*
SURAT, GUJARAT, India, May 13 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – The western state of Gujarat has made no secret of its ambitions to become the solar capital of India, and now its second largest city is taking steps to help it achieve that dream.
Brickmaking Spells Trouble for Bangladesh
By Khaled Hasan*
DHAKA, Apr 18 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – The world is changing, and that includes Bangladesh. Long among what had been derisively called the ‘basketcase economies’ of the world, this South Asian country has been posting a GDP growth rate of more than five percent for the last 10 years.
PHILIPPINES: In Climate Change, Ducks to the Rescue?
By Bong D Fabe*
PAGADIAN City, Philippines, Jan 21 – It may seem a bit far-fetched or far too simple to many, but local experts say that growing ducks on the Philippines’ rice paddies goes a long way in reducing emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from rice farming.
Rice Farmers Need to Pitch In Too
“Methane emissions are unique to rice…If Asian countries are exploring possibilities to reduce greenhouse gas, they have to look at rice production. I’m not saying it’s the biggest source, but in Asia it’s a source that cannot be neglected.” - Reiner Wassmann, climate change specialist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Reads
Battered Planet, Twisted Economics
BANGKOK, May 6 (Bangkok Post) - As the new round of global climate negotiations opened in Bonn last week, the UN’s climate chief raised “a heightened sense of urgency” on the current projection of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration which is soon expected to shoot above 400 parts per million (ppm).
Original link: http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/348585/battered-planet-twisted-economics
Deforestation Decrease In First Three Months
VIETNAM, Apr 25 (VNS)– More than 450 instances of illegal deforestation were discovered in the first three months of this year, according to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry. In Bac Bien Ho Forest in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, forest fire destroyed 160 ha of wooded land.
Original link: http://vietnamnews.vn/environment/238632/deforestation-decrease-in-first-three-months.html
Voices
Towards Disaster-resilient ASEAN Community
By A.K.P. Mochtan
Dec 16 (The Star) – ONE of the key challenges in building the Asean community is coming up with tangible outcomes that benefit the people directly. This is a tall order, since many of Asean’s objectives are at the regional level.
Asia-Pacific Can’t Ignore Rising Threat From Climate Change
By Bindu Lohani
DOHA, Dec 3 (South China Morning Post) -The jury may still be out on the link between climate change and natural disasters. But one thing is clear: weather-related disasters are increasing in both frequency and intensity. Witness the string of severe recent floods across Asia – from Pakistan to Thailand and the Philippines – and Hurricane Sandy in the US, which have vividly shown us how extreme weather events can bring entire countries to a virtual standstill. Volatile weather extremes are hitting Asia and the Pacific more often than any other region of the world.
What’s Up
To Report On Climate Change, Go Beyond It
BANGKOK – The phrase ‘climate change’ occupies a lot of column inches these days, but there is a lot of room for reporting it far beyond just a scientific, or environment, or disaster story. Often, climate change straddles different news beats and needs to be covered as such in order to show how it affects people’s daily lives.
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