Climate refugees

Bangladesh is one countries most vulnerable to climate change. The ganges river delta covers most of the country. River deltas, being low-lying, are more vulnerable to rising sea levels, stronger storms and other effects of climate change. Here is Bangladeshi climatologist Dr. Atiq Rahman, from an article by Johann Hari:

He handed me shafts of scientific studies as he explained: "This is the ground zero of global warming." He listed the effects. The seas are rising, so land is being claimed from the outside. (The largest island in the country, Bhola, has lost half its land in the past decade.) The rivers are super-charged, becoming wider and wider, so land is being claimed from within. (Erosion is up by 40 per cent). Cyclones are becoming more intense and more violent (2007 was the worst year on record for intense hurricanes here). And salt water is rendering the land barren. (The rate of saline inundation has trebled in the past 20 years.) "There is no question," Dr Rahman said, "that this is being caused primarily by human action. This is way outside natural variation. If you really want people in the West to understand the effect they are having here, it's simple. From now on, we need to have a system where for every 10,000 tons of carbon you emit, you have to take a Bangladeshi family to live with you. It is your responsibility." In the past, he has called it "climatic genocide".

It's from last year, but the rest of the article is worth reading if you're interested.

I saw an interesting article on the same topic today, talking about climate refugees in Dhaka, the country's capital. One bit caught my attention:

Dhaka's population was 177,000 in 1974. Now, with more than 12 million inhabitants, it is one of the most densely populated cities on earth and its infrastructure is buckling under the strain.

The city's population grew 67 fold in that time. The mind boggles. It is the most densely populated city in the world. A city simply can't grow that fast and grow well, least of all in a poor country without the resources for the required infrastructure building program. People just have to make do. In practice, this means many live in slums which they build themselves from whatever they can find.

This is a story repeated the world over in developing countries, where there has been a marked trend towards this sort of urbanization. But Bangladesh may be the most extreme case, and if climate change continues, the pressure will only increase as land is lost to the rivers, to the sea and to salt.

And, if current climate trends continue, the problem will just get worse.