Climate Refugees

With COP 15 over it is time Bangladesh took stock of its climate troubles. We may soon be able to pull money out of a global adaptation fund, but the problems of today still remain, hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh are climate refugees, held captive by currents, tides and cyclones. Climate change is the single most important global issue there is, and climate refugees are the human face of the ongoing tragedy.

Photos by Abir Abdullah/EPA

Nature has never made it easy to live in Bangladesh. Located in the low-lying Ganges Delta, formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Megna rivers, most of the country is less than 10 meters above sea level. It is a country swamped by annual floods, with a coast battered by cyclones and tornadoes, and at times subject to drought. Even as the rest of the world gears up to face the increasingly dire consequences of climate change, Bangladesh's coastal population have already become climate refugees.

In low-lying areas, it is not unusual to be knee-deep in water during the monsoon. But floods are becoming more extreme and unpredictable. Crops have been totally destroyed, livestock lost. People have been forced to tear down their houses and move dozens of times to escape the rising water levels, only to return when the flood recedes to find their former land gone.

As summer temperatures climb, the weather seems to be growing more extreme and erratic. In 2004, tides in the estuaries stopped ebbing and flowing the water simply stayed at high-tide level. In 2005, the country had no winter, with serious consequences for potato farmers. The direction of the monsoon has changed it now advances west instead of north across the country. In the northwest, the monsoon failed entirely in 2006, causing severe drought, and 2007 saw a tornado occur months out of season.

There have not been sufficient studies to prove that these phenomena are a direct result of global warning, but they do give an indication of what Bangladesh can expect. A country where many people have never driven a car, run an air-conditioner, or done much at all to increase carbon emissions, could well end up fighting climate change on the front line.