Environment

By Ranil Senanayake Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of madness. So I venture again into the realm of madness and once more try to warm the public of the harm that politicians and…
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By Kate Lyons Global heating above 1.5C will be “catastrophic” for Pacific island nations and could lead to the loss of entire countries due to sea-level rise within the century, experts have warned. The Pacific has long been seen as…
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By Lisa Friedman, Hiroko Tabuchi and Winston Choi Schagrin When some 200 scientists convened by the United Nations all but demanded on Monday (9) that the nations immediately band together to cut emissions, they portrayed it as a brief…
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By Hemantha Withanage The X-Press Pearl ship catastrophe is the most significant ship accident that has happened in the Indian Ocean and is the worst maritime disaster in the history of Sri Lanka. This is because it is a toxic ship with 81…
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By Helen Regan and Chandler Thornton For almost two weeks, a thick, black smudge stained the sky off Sri Lanka's western coast - smoke from a burning container ship nine nautical miles out to sea. The Singapore-flagged X-Press Pearl…
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By Ranil P. Nanayakkara The Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka has faced many maritime disasters over the years, but none as bad as the recent incident with the MV X-Press Pearl, a freighter that caught fire on May 20 in close proximity to…
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By Malaka Rodrigo PUTTALAM — Samith Fernando runs a tour boat service in the Puttalam Lagoon, a scenic spot about 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. In 2017, he says, he spotted one of the most…
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By Dennis Mombauer COLOMBO — Authorities in Sri Lanka have called for a renewed focus on conserving the island’s rich coastal ecosystems, identifying the ‘blue economy’ as key to the nation’s sustainable development. The Indian Ocean…
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By Malaka Rodrigo COLOMBO — Folklore has it that babies were delivered by storks, who carried them in slings from their beaks and left them at the door of unsuspecting couples. But the script was flipped for Premathilaka Peramuna, who…
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By Livia Albeck Ripka The United Nations has recommended that the Great Barrier Reef be placed on a list of World Heritage sites that are “in danger,” prompting a fierce reaction from the Australian government, which defended its…
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