Environment

Heat Wave

Thousands of schools across Bangladesh were forced to shut down because of power cuts and the longest heat wave for the country in decades. “We have never seen such a prolonged heat wave since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971,” said Bazlur Rashid of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

The government has been forced to shutter its largest power plant because it cannot afford the coal to fuel it, while other plants are unable to keep up with demand. The onset of the southwest monsoon typically brings relief by early June from the late-spring heat, but it is late in arriving.

Panama Canal Drought Intensifies

Dwindling water levels on lakes Gatun and Alajuela, which feed the locks of the Panama Canal, are resulting in weight limits and rising surcharges for ships passing through the key waterway. A protracted Panamanian drought is raising further supply chain concerns just as delivery bottlenecks are easing around the world.

Economists warn that should the lake levels fall further, shipping rates could soar and revive some of the chaos of 2021, when high costs and shortages helped drive inflation worldwide. The El Niño ocean warming in the Pacific, which is just developing, typically brings hotter and drier weather to Panama, threatening to cause the two lakes to lose even more water.