Some of the world's most iconic glaciers are set to vanish by 2050 due to carbon emissions warming the planet, said a new study by UNESCO. Fifty UNESCO World Heritage sites are home to glaciers, representing about 10 percent of the world's glacier areas, including some of the world's best-known glaciers. They include the highest (next to Mount Everest), the longest (in Alaska), and the last remaining glaciers in Africa. Glaciers in a third of sites are under threat. However, UNESCO said, the rest can still be saved if global temperatures do not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial times. The UNESCO study shows that these glaciers have been retreating at an accelerated rate since 2000 due to CO2 emissions. World Heritage glaciers lose on average some 58 billion tons of ice every year – equivalent to the total annual volume of water used in France and Spain together – and are responsible for nearly five percent of observed global sea-level rise. The glaciers under threat are in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania. "Only a rapid reduction in our CO2 emissions levels can save glaciers and the exceptional biodiversity that depends on them. COP27 will have a crucial role to help find solutions to this issue," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said. Also, UNESCO is advocating for the creation of a new international fund for glacier monitoring and preservation – such a fund would support comprehensive research, promote exchange networks between all stakeholders and implement early warning and disaster risk reduction measures. Read more: Melting ice imperils 98% of Emperor penguin colonies by 2100 Half of humanity depends directly or indirectly on glaciers as their water source for domestic use, agriculture, and power. Glaciers are also pillars of biodiversity, feeding many ecosystems. "When glaciers melt rapidly, millions of people face water scarcity and the increased risk of natural disasters such as flooding, and millions more may be displaced by the resulting rise in sea levels," said International Union for Conservation of Nature Director General Bruno Oberle.    

Tourist spots in the country’s southern districts, including the Sundarbans and the historic Shat Gombuj Mosque, are seeing sizeable flow of tourists as travelling has become easy after Padma Bridge opened. The Forest Department is going to open four more eco-tourism centres in the Sundarbans to manage the growing number of tourists. Muhammad Belayet Hossain, divisional forest officer of Sundarbans East Zone, said the mangrove forest is seeing a sharp rise in the number of tourists after the inauguration of Padma Bridge. Read: Sundarbans reopens to tourists, fishermen after 3 months Four new eco-tourism centres are being set up in Alibanda, Andharmanik, Shekhertek and Kalabagi to handle the growing tourist flow. There are already seven eco-tourism centres at Karamjal, Herbaria, Kalagachia, Katka, Kochikhali, Dubla and Heron Point for tourists visiting the Sundarbans. Tourists can visit the three centres in Karamjal, Herbaria and Kalagachia with a fixed entry fee and they have to return within the day. Read “RAB freed Sundarbans from robbers and inspired a quality film”

Italy's decision earlier this week to ban oversized cruise ships from sailing into Venice is bound to reset the balance between the environmental and safety needs of the canal city and its status as one of Italy's top tourist destinations. But some key observers are already complaining that the new rules do not go far enough. The presence of large, multi-storey cruise liners in and around Venice has been a source of frustration for locals for more than a decade now. But the problem was put on the back burner during the coronavirus pandemic: the city was free of cruise ships between February 2020 and last month, when the 2,500-passenger MSC Orchestra entered the Venetian Lagoon amid protests from locals. Read:UNESCO watching as Venice grapples with over-tourism This week, in what Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini called a "historic" move, Italy's cabinet of ministers approved a ban on ships weighing more than 25,000 metric tons or longer than 180 meters (590 feet) entering the lagoon basin near Venice's St. Mark's Square, the narrow Giudecca Canal and the surrounding areas starting Aug. 1. For comparison, the MSC Orchestra weighs more than 90,000 tons and is 295 meters (965 feet) in length. The largest cruise liners that docked in Venice before the pandemic sometimes topped 200,000 tons, according to news reports. The decree was front-page news in Italy, and elicited praise from environmentalists and culture advocates alike, especially after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned that Venice's status as a UNESCO World Heritage site could be put in jeopardy by the ships. But it earned mixed reviews from the city's beleaguered business community, which is highly dependent on tourism. After nearly a year and a half of travel restrictions, the city's restaurants, shops and tour companies had been banking on a strong tourist season this year. The cruise ship ban will cut into that. Read:Europe flooding toll over 180 as rescuers dig deeper According to Gianfranco Lorenzo, head of research at the Center for Tourism Studies in Florence, the ban is likely to reduce the number of tourists arriving by cruise ship by half over the long haul, from an average 1.3 million to 1.5 million per year before the pandemic. But he told Xinhua that, overall, tourism revenues would probably suffer just a modest impact. "Without the signature view of St. Mark's Square and the rest of Venice, coming to Venice on a cruise will surely seem less attractive to some tourists," Lorenzo said. "But the city has already said it will focus on more high-level tourism, and if it does that the huge cruise ships would be less relevant anyway. Over time, the impact from the ban will diminish." The ships have proved controversial because of their negative effects on the local ecosystem and air quality, plus what Andreina Zitelli, a professor and activist member of the Venice Environmental Association, called the "unknown" impacts on the city's ancient infrastructure of bridges and buildings with underwater foundations. But Zitelli worried that the new ban does not go far enough. She noted that the big ships that once passed through the Giudecca Canal will after Aug. 1 be rerouted 22 kilometers (13.8 miles) to the mainland port of Marghera through a far less picturesque route, unseen from the center of Venice. Still, she said, the ships will continue to do damage even on the new route and therefore they should eventually be banned completely. Read:France: Thousands protest against vaccination, COVID passes "We won't see the ships, but they'll still do damage," Zitelli said. "We have to do what is necessary to protect our fragile city." Despite the ban, Venice's UNESCO status remains on the agenda of the ongoing World Heritage Committee meeting, which opened Friday in Fuzhou, China.

With the death of six more people in floods and mudslides in northeastern India's Assam state, the death toll has been climbed to 77 till Tuesday.

Residents of the coastal districts of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat observed the ‘Sundarbans Day’ on Friday with an appeal to save the largest mangrove forest in the world.