Latest news with #Ganges
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Researchers make concerning discovery embedded in tissue of staple fish — here's what you need to know
A new study has made a concerning discovery in one of Bangladesh's favorite fish. Researchers found that hilsa — a staple in kitchens across the country — is contaminated with not only toxic heavy metals but also dangerous levels of plastic embedded in its muscle tissue, liver, and intestines. As reported by The Daily Star, hilsa fish have been found to contain microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters — along with cadmium, lead, mercury, and arsenic. These particles come from plastic bags, bottles, synthetic fabrics, and other items that wash into rivers and oceans. Plastic production in Bangladesh increased by 169% between 2005 and 2014, which is significantly higher than the global average of 25%. Researchers estimated that the Ganges and its tributaries may be dumping up to 30 billion microplastic particles into the Bay of Bengal every day. Hilsa and other animals ingest these particles, which then enter the food chain and our bodies. And it's not just hilsa. A 2022 study found that 17 fish species and three types of shellfish from another area were also contaminated. That means an adult eating just 300 grams of fish a week could end up ingesting over 74,000 microplastic particles a year. This raises serious public health concerns for the millions of people who eat this fish every week. Microplastics have been linked to health problems such as inflammation, hormonal disruption, and potentially cancer. Contaminating such a common food source could harm the long-term well-being of the public. Plus, many contaminated areas are also economically dependent on fishing. As fish become more polluted, communities may see their livelihoods affected, meaning more families could end up struggling financially. Microplastics also harm wildlife and disturb ecosystems, which has a ripple effect across the food chain. Even though Bangladesh has a ban on single-use plastics, it's not always enforced. Plastic bags are still used, and waste continues to end up in rivers from both industrial sources and households. There are calls for the Bangladesh government to strengthen enforcement, raise awareness about plastic pollution, and make affordable alternatives available to the public. This isn't the first time researchers have raised red flags about toxic fish. Similar discoveries have been made in the U.S. and Europe, and efforts to curb plastic production are gaining steam around the world. But with plastic production still rising, experts agree that we need to act now before more of our food becomes contaminated. Environmental groups also help with ocean cleanups to remove plastic waste before it breaks down. Everyday people can do their part by using less plastic — from ditching plastic bags and bottles to supporting refillable product systems. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
The Bangladesh delta is under a dangerous level of strain, analysis reveals
Bangladesh is known as the land of rivers and flooding, despite almost all of its water originating outside the territory. The fact that 80% of rivers that flow through Bangladesh have their sources in a neighbouring country, can make access to freshwater in Bangladesh fraught. And the country's fast-growing cities and farms – and the warming global climate – are turning up the pressure. In a recent analysis, my colleagues and I found that four out of the ten rivers that flow through Bangladesh have failed to meet a set of conditions known as their 'safe operating space', meaning that the flow of water in these rivers is below the minimum necessary to sustain the social-ecological systems that rely on them. These rivers included the Ganges and Old Brahmaputra, as well as Gorai and Halda. This puts a safe and reliable food and water supply not to mention the livelihoods of millions of fishers, farmers and other people in the region, at risk. Water flow on the remaining six rivers may be close to a dangerous state too, due to the construction of hydropower dams and reservoirs, as well as booming irrigated agriculture. Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK's latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. The concept of a safe operating space was devised by Stockholm University researchers in 2009 and typically assesses the Earth's health as a whole by defining boundaries such as climate warming, water use and biodiversity loss which become dangerous to humanity once exceeded. A 2023 update to this research found that six of the nine defined planetary boundaries have been transgressed. Since the Bangladesh delta is one of the world's largest and most densely populated (home to around 170 million people), we thought it prudent to apply this thinking to the rivers here. We found that food, fisheries and the world's largest intertidal mangrove forest, a haven for rich biodiversity, are all under strain from water demand in growing cities such as Dhaka. During all seasons but winter, river flows in the Bangladesh delta have fallen over the past three decades. Our analysis highlights the limits of existing political solutions. The ability of the Ganges river to support life and society is severely strained, despite the Ganges water sharing treaty between India and Bangladesh, which was signed in 1996. Rivers in Bangladesh have shaped the economy, environment and culture of South Asia since the dawn of human civilisation here. And humans are not the only species suffering. Hilsha (Tenualosa ilisha), related to the herring, is a fish popular for its flavour and delicate texture. It contributes 12% to national fish production in Bangladesh but has become extinct in the upper reaches of the Ganges due to the reduction of water flow. Excessive water extraction upstream, primarily through the Farakka barrage, a dam just over the border in the Indian state of West Bengal, has also raised the salinity of the Gorai river. A healthy river flow maintains a liveable balance of salt and freshwater. As river flows have been restricted, salinity has crept up, particularly in coastal regions that are also beset by sea level rise. This damages freshwater fisheries, farm yields and threatens a population of freshwater dolphins in the Ganges. Low river flows and increasing salinisation now threaten the destruction of the world's largest mangrove forest, the loss of which would disrupt the regional climate of Bangladesh, India and Nepal. It would also release a lot of stored carbon to the atmosphere, accelerating climate change and the melting of snow and ice in the Himalayan mountain chain. Solving this problem is no simple task. It will require cooperation across national boundaries and international support to ensure fair treaties capable of managing the rivers sustainably, restoring their associated ecosystems and maintaining river flows within their safe operating spaces. This is particularly challenging in the Bangladesh delta, which contains rivers that drain many countries, including China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The political regimes in each country might oppose transboundary negotiations, which could nevertheless resolve conflict over water which is needed to sustain nearly 700 million people. There have been success stories, however. The Mekong river commission between Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam is a useful template for bilateral and multilateral treaties with India and Nepal for the Ganges, and China and Bhutan for the Jamuna river. Tax-based water sharing can help resolve conflicts and decide water allocation between countries in the river basin. The countries using more water would pay more tax and the revenue would be redistributed among the other countries who share rivers in the treaty. Additionally, water sharing should be based on the historical river flow disregarding existing infrastructure and projections of future changes. Reducing deforestation, alternating land use and restoring wetlands could enhance resilience to flooding and drought and ensure water security in the Bangladesh delta. Ultimately, to secure a safe operating space for the rivers here is to secure a safe future for society too. Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation's environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who've subscribed so far. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Md Sarwar Hossain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Researchers raise red flags over cancer-causing threat lurking in crucial waterways: 'Could trigger a public health crisis'
We know that microplastics harm not only the environment and ecosystems but also our bodies. A recent study published in the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, reported by The New Indian Express, explores this further. It warns that "an increase in pollution in water bodies could trigger a public health crisis, with cancer being one of the long-term consequences." The study links microplastic pollution in rivers, particularly the Ganges, to a rise in gallbladder cancer (GBC) in India. Researchers from Kerala medical colleges found that microplastics may have carcinogenic effects. These tiny particles can trigger inflammation, oxidative stress, immune system disruption, and gut microbiome changes, factors known to contribute to cancer development. The study also highlights that India produces around 15 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with only 25% being recycled. The rest breaks down into micro- or nanoplastics, which enter the food chain through water and marine life. As plastic pollution has increased, so have the cases of GBC. While rates in Kerala are still lower than in other areas, doctors there report a steady rise. This research serves as a clear warning: Unchecked pollution can lead to serious long-term health consequences, including cancer. The connection between microplastics and cancer isn't just alarming; it's a call to action. The impacts of microplastics go far beyond human health. They harm marine life, disrupt food webs, and damage biodiversity. On land, they affect soil quality and hinder plant growth, which can ultimately threaten our food supply. The damage caused by microplastics touches every part of our ecosystem, and the consequences are mounting. There are many ways to help combat plastic pollution. While individual efforts might seem small, collective action makes a difference. From reducing single-use plastics to participating in beach or park cleanups and recycling properly, every step counts. Even small changes can create a lasting impact, especially when we all get involved. How often do you worry about the quality of your drinking water? Never Sometimes Often Always Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Hindustan Times
02-07-2025
- Hindustan Times
Digital library, vintage café and more in store for State Museum visitors
Visitors to the State Museum in the state capital will soon have access to a digital library offering research materials and reference books, to be set up in the Old Kothi building located behind the museum on the Lucknow Zoo premises. The auditorium conceptualised after renovation. (Sourced) Complementing the library, a vintage-themed café will be developed nearby, allowing readers to enjoy a cup of coffee while they browse. 'The work for both library and café is set to begin soon and is expected to be completed in a couple of years' time at a cost of ₹ 4.87 crore. The vintage café will showcase Lucknow's heritage and culture. Besides, the rich reserve collection in the museum will also be revamped at a cost of ₹ 4.85 crore. Once renovated, the objects will be tagged in such a way that one can find them at the click of a button. The process will be completed within two years,' museum director Srishti Dhaon said. Several other upgrades have also been planned at the State Museum to provide a better experience for visitors by the end of July. Among them is the transformation of the existing Foreign Art Gallery into an open gallery. The 23 stone sculptures preserved in the indoor gallery will be showcased in landscaped gardens where visitors can sit and view them at leisure. The work of making pedestals and garden landscaping in the Foreign Art Open Gallery is being carried out at a cost of ₹ 1.59 crore. Besides, the Folk Art Museum is also undergoing an infrastructural upgrade for ₹ 3.03 crore, Dhaon said. She said that the museum is also set to receive a revamped auditorium with a seating capacity of 120 people at a time. 'The work to renovate the auditorium by including all modern technology like Dolby Atmos sound and projector is underway at a cost of ₹ 1.72 crore. It will be in the form of a proscenium,' she added. The museum is also set to receive a new augmented reality and virtual reality room where the visitors will be able to watch documentaries like the origin of Ganges, story of Kumbh, and virtual tours of Mathura, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar and State Museum. 'The 360-degree view of the museum will also be available on the official website by the end of July. These developments are being carried out with the support of culture minister Jaiveer Singh and principal secretary Mukesh Meshram,' Dhaon said.
The Guardian
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
F1 the Movie to Squid Game: the week in rave reviews
Disney+; full series available now Summed up in a sentence The Bear isn't the chaotic 'Yes, chef!' drama it used to be – but that's no bad thing, as it is beautiful to watch this urban family grow. What our reviewer said 'Payoffs big and small ping in every scene as narrative seeds carefully sown – including in that bad third season! – burst into bloom and these people we have come to adore are rewarded.' Jack Seale Read the full review Further reading 'Shh, chef!' The agonising, joyful power of silent TV episodes Netflix; full series available now Summed up in a sentence The Korean dystopian thriller is now much less pointed than its first stellar series, and it has become ludicrous even by its own standards – but fans simply must know how it all ends! What our reviewer said 'If you can get on board with the new contestant twist – and that is a big if – then the final two episodes have a nicely grand and operatic feel to them, and ultimately, Squid Game does its job. But it leaves the impression, too, that it has become a more traditional action-thriller than it once was.' Rebecca Nicholson Read the full review Further reading 'People like happy endings. Sorry!' Squid Game's brutal finale ramps up the barbarity BBC One/iPlayer; available now Summed up in a sentence As he grieves his beloved father, the atheist broadcaster sets off on a pilgrimage that takes him on a surprisingly glorious spiritual adventure. What our reviewer said 'What Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges expresses most powerfully of all, certainly to this fellow bereaved Hindu, are the irresolvable particularities, and commonalities, of second-generation grief.' Chitra Ramaswamy Read the full review Channel 4; both series available now Summed up in a sentence The second series of Bridget Christie's whimsical and wonderful menopause story is life-affirming – with cracking comedy moments. What our reviewer said 'The Change is ambitious, surreal, moving, and above all hysterically funny. It is unlike anything else on TV.' Chitra Ramaswamy Read the full review Further reading Bridget Christie on brain fog, flirting, and why she won't be taking a lover: 'My heart is full. I am open to it, but I'm not looking for it' In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Brad Pitt stars as a supercool old-school driver returning 30 years after a near fatal crash to break all the rules of Formula One racing. What our reviewer said 'Motor racing is a sport in which constituent team members seem to be competing against each other as much as against the opposition, and so it ought to be an ideal subject for a movie treatment. There's a fair bit of macho silliness here, but the panache with which director Joseph Kosinski puts it together is very entertaining.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading Brad Pitt in the paddock: how F1 the Movie went deep to keep fans coming In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Heart-wrenching true story about anti-Nazi activist Hilde Coppi, a dental assistant who is arrested while pregnant What our reviewer said 'Hilde's story, told here by interspersing scenes of her grim prison life and the first summer of her love affair with Hans, is comparable to that of iconic anti-Hitler activist Sophie Scholl, but this is a more adult, passionate drama.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Documentary that draws on director Hind Meddeb's on-the-spot experience in 2019 as protesters rose against the 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir. What our reviewer said 'Meddeb finds among the protesters a vivid, vibrant artistic movement: an oral culture of music, poetry and rap which flourishes on the streets. There is also a kind of subversive, surrealist energy: the camera finds a mock traffic roadworks sign reading: 'Sorry for the Delay – Uprooting a Regime'.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Thirtieth anniversary rerelease of Amy Heckerling's high-school romcom coming-of-age classic starring Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy, composed entirely of quotable funny lines, remains a sophisticated pleasure. What our reviewer said 'Silverstone is amazingly innocent and charming and her sublimely weightless screen presence has a kind of serenity and maturity that belongs to an instinctive comedy performer.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading Alicia Silverstone to reprise Clueless role in TV sequel Prime Video; out now Summed up in a sentence Gory horror franchise returns with a hugely entertaining sixth instalment which sets up an entire family tree for the slaughter. What our reviewer said 'The most entertaining kills, which this time around involve everything from lawn tools to an MRI, have a Buster Keaton-esque flair for physical comedy. These sequences, along with the plot as a whole, tend to include little callbacks to the past: buses, barbecues, ceiling fans and logs make cameo appearances, thrilling little reminders of the havoc they can wreak in a Final Destination.' Radheyan Simonpillai Read the full review Reviewed by Marcel Theroux Summed up in a sentence A black comedy about endangered snails and Ukraine's marriage industry is disrupted, in both narrative and form, by Russia's full-scale invasion. What our reviewer said 'Rather than feeling distracting or tricksy, the author's intervention heightens the impact of the story, giving it a discomfiting intensity and a new, more intimate register. We all have skin in the game at this point.' Read the full review Reviewed by Lara Feigel Summed up in a sentence A flamboyant tale of fakery and forgers that delights in queering the Victorian era. What our reviewer said 'In book after book, Stevens is showing herself to be that rare thing: a writer who we can think alongside, even while she's making things up.' Read the full review Reviewed by Christopher Shrimpton Summed up in a sentence The perfect lives of wealthy New Yorkers are shattered by a violent act on a birthday weekend. What our reviewer said 'A bracingly honest and affectingly intimate depiction of abuse, family dynamics and self-deceit … it upends its characters' lives so ruthlessly and revealingly that it is hard not to take pleasure in a false facade being finally smashed.' Read the full review Reviewed by Joe Moran Summed up in a sentence Behind the scenes at the Guardian, 1986-1995. What our reviewer said 'Few events in these years, from the fatwa on Rushdie to the first Gulf war, failed to provoke fierce disagreements in the newsroom.' Read the full review Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes Summed up in a sentence How animals have shaped British identity. What our reviewer said 'Hedgehogs were reputed to sneak into human settlements at night and steal eggs (true) and suck the udders of sleeping cows (almost certainly false).' Read the full review Reviewed by Alex Clark Summed up in a sentence Life on the women's wards of Iran's infamous prison. What our reviewer said 'It is unclear how many of these dishes are materially realised within the confines of the prison, and how many are acts of fantasy, a dream of what life might be like in the future.' Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence After her 2021 album Solar Power embraced switching off, the New Zealand musician returns to pop's fray to revel in chaos and carnality. What our reviewer said 'Virgin is haunted by a very late-20s kind of angst, born of the sense that you're now incontrovertibly an adult, regardless of whether you feel like one – and despite the euphoric choruses, the sound of Virgin is noticeably unsettled and rough.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Further reading Girl, so inspiring! Lorde's 20 best songs – ranked Out now Summed up in a sentence The mysterious new Sheffield-based artist's thrillingly complete sound world is glitchily complex but beguilingly light on its feet. What our reviewer said 'You can find affinities with other artists and styles here: the bookish but playful minimalism of another Sheffield musician, Mark Fell; Objekt's trickster vision for bass music and techno; the white-tiled cleanliness of some of Sophie's work; Jlin's paradoxically static funk. But the way it's all pulled together is totally NZO's.' Ben Beaumont-Thomas Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence The US singer's seventh album takes his meta-theatrical style almost into showtune territory as he confronts being abused by a camp counsellor as a child. What our reviewer said 'Christinzio's inventive, infuriating writing often packs three extra songs into every single track – but this time for good reason. When the chatter falls away on instrumental closer Leaving Camp Four Oaks, he achieves a hard-won, sun-lit sense of peace.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence The US saxophonist pulls back the vocals of his last record to present a new ensemble and all-original repertoire, resulting in an ideal balance of ingenuity and rapport. What our reviewer said 'He has introduced a terrific new young road band on an all-original repertoire … the result is an album that feels more like an ideal balance of Redman's own ingenuity and his ensemble rapport.' John Fordham Read the full review On tour this week Summed up in a sentence The US singer-songwriter debuts some songs from her long-awaited new album The Right Person Will Stay on her first stadium tour. What our reviewer said 'Lana Del Rey is crying real tears next to plastic weeping willows, momentarily overcome by the size of the audience. This sort of tension, the push-pull between genuine vulnerability and an exploration of aesthetics, has always been there in her music, and her wonderfully ambitious first stadium tour runs on it.' Huw Baines Read the full review
