Category Archives: Environmental management
When Worlds Collide #120: Asia’s smallest state Maldives faces big climate threats
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today newspaper on 5 September 2014 Small island nations are in focus this week, as well as throughout this year. The Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #119: Long way to lowering Lanka’s Deadly Diesel Hazard
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today newspaper on 29 August 2014 Progress is slow and incremental. Those who take all-or-nothing positions often end up with…nothing. So let’s hail Sri Lanka’s leading petroleum distributor introducing a … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #117: Once and Future Organics in Sri Lanka
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today newspaper on 15 August 2014 It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong, cautioned the French writer and philosopher François-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), better known … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #115: Fast-tracking Road Safety in Sri Lanka
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today newspaper on 18 July 2014 The Apollo 8 space mission, which lasted from 21 to 27 December 1968, was the first time that a manned spacecraft left Earth orbit, … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #107: Climate Reporting from ‘Ground Zero’
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today ay newspaper on 16 May 2014 Can journalists save the planet? I posed this question in a column nearly two years ago, in June 2012. During the early years … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #104: Dengue Control sans Chemicals?
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today broadsheet newspaper on 25 April 2014 Last week, discussing dengue fever as a silent disaster, I wrote: “For now, there is no specific antiviral drug or effective vaccine against dengue. … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #103: Combating Dengue, a ‘Silent Disaster’
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today broadsheet newspaper on 18 April 2014 The theme for World Health Day, observed on April 7, was vector-borne diseases – a major public health challenge in the tropics. It was … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #99: South Asia: In Search of Open Data
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today broadsheet newspaper on 7 March 2014 “When you’re trying to reach a goal, data not only tells you if you’re succeeding, but it also suggests which activities you should do … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #97: Living on the Edge – South Asia’s Coastal Scramble
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today broadsheet newspaper on 14 February 2014 Many different worlds collide on the coast – both literally and metaphorically. Coasts are where land meets the sea. A precise coastline cannot be … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide #93: After Haiyan: Philippines can learn from Lanka’s mistakes
Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday broadsheet newspaper on 1 December 2013 I felt a sense of Déjà vu as I spent the past week in the Philippines witnessing how the archipelago nation is struggling with … Continue reading
When Worlds Collide, by Nalaka Gunawardene 