‘We used to have six seasons, now we can barely recognise four’, say many farmers in Bangladesh. Talk to any person working in the development sector about weather, and the same sentiments are expressed through the language of climate change. While discussions are not always based on accurate information, overall there is enough truth in there for you to understand the cause of this new obsession. While they recognise that Climate Change is something they did not contribute to (today, it represents 0.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions), the general public are too busy worrying about its immediate impacts to focus on what the West is or rather is not doing to help.
But before crying a climate change tear for Bangladesh, we need to get a few things straight.
Firstly, because of its position in the Bay of Bengal Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in the world to cyclones. The majority of the country lies less than 5 metres above sea-level. It is home to the second largest delta in the world (the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna all enter the Bay of Bengal here). Annual monsoon rains often cause major flooding. Over 70% of the population below the poverty line and it is the most densely populated country in the world (ignoring places like Monaco, and rightly so!).
The topography, geographical feature, tropical climate and population density of Bangladesh mean that it will forever be home to cyclones, flooding, seasonal drought and other climate related problems. If climate change never happened, this reality would not change greatly.
Secondly, all of these features (bar the ole cyclones) are an essential part of Bangladesh. Flooding and monsoon rains are essential for food security and the agricultural sector which employs 70% of the population. The tropical climate makes its countryside a place of infinite beauty as harvesting season closes in; the source of inspiration for most of the country’s great literature and equally the main reason why Bangladeshis love their country more than any other people I have ever met. It gives the people the most delicious fruits from Pineapples, Litchi,
Mangoes and so many more. In truth, in the same way as Ireland would not be Ireland without the rain, Bangladesh would not be Bangladesh without its tropical climate and infinite number of waterways. Bangladeshi’s do not necessarily want their climate or country to change; they would just like to be able to manage it better. And, in fairness, they have taken some measures over the past 40years to do so.
But the unfortunate reality is that the climate has already begun and will continue to change on the back of mostly Western CO2 emissions. The UNFCC (UN Institution responsible for climate change analysis and more) predicts that Climate Change will bring unpredictable monsoon rains, greater intensity to cyclones, tidal waves etc, sea-level rise of 20cm by 2050 and increased river volume through Himalaya ice-cap melting.
Over the past 30years, Bangladesh has suffered 60 cyclones, with most of there coming in the last 20years (a 40% increase on ‘normal cyclone activity’). It has seen river volumes rise leading to increased flooding and salinity creep inland as sea levels rise. It has seen precipitations levels fluctuate beyond recognition with certain parts of the country wondering if the monsoon season is one of those seasons which is also disappearing. The impact of all of this is staggering.
Natural flooding is key to making soil fertile but prolonged flooding or as it is called here, water logging makes soil unsuitable for growing most crops especially the staple paddy of Bangladesh. Increased volumes of silt cause river beds to rise, making embankments pointless. Increased salinity is another threat to paddy cultivation while also rendering drinking water unsafe. 9months without any rainfall when it used to 6 is push previously food secure areas close to famine. And while improvements have been made in relation to protecting lives during cyclones, the most recent cyclone Aila, still killed 300people. But it is in terms of livelihoods and basic human rights that cyclones do their most damage: livestock, seasonal cash crops, fruit and vegetables, fish reserves, firewood, infrastructure, communications, homes, schools, police stations all swept away. On top of this, the area most prone to cyclones is home to the Sundarban Mangrove Forest, the largest in the world and a world heritage site. Repeated cyclones have stripped the forest of its protective force leaving local communities exposed to the full brunt of the cyclone while simultaneously greatly undermining the forest’s biodiversity.
Yet it is in terms of the overall development of Bangladesh that climate change will have its greatest impact. Imagine an unstable government struggling to meet the expectations of its people who want development today not tomorrow. Now imagine that challenge with the impacts of climate change described above (never mind security issues, war crimes tribunals, fundamentalism, massive electricity and gas shortages, the persecution of indigenous communities etc etc) – the challenge facing Bangladesh is frightening and in a way depressing. How can anyone expect countries to fight the development war and the climate war at the same time?
With current development funds and global policies, we simply can’t. On the one hand western countries support developing countries through official development assistance (IrishAid, DFID , Unicef, UNDP etc). Yet on the other they are both unable and unwilling to change national policies to reduce CO2 and refuse to provide developing countries like Bangladesh with the resources (financial, technical and human) to adapt to changes caused by climate change. There is no real room for argument about this. Efforts to reduce CO2 emissions in western countries have been piecemeal and in some ways simply token efforts. The total climate change adaptation funds promised back in Copenhagen December 2009 would barely be sufficient for one country facing problems like Bangladesh never mind all of the least developed countries. It is completely contradictory and a waste of the tax payers money and developing countries’ efforts.
We simply have to join up global development thinking with climate change adaptation and mitigation. This does not mean that we just integrate climate change adaptation activities into current development assistance programs (as many western states propose) but that we supplement this integration with the necessary funds (ring fencing them if necessary). Simultaneously, we need a dramatic shift in domestic and international policies towards sustainable development – a paradigm which has been proposed mainly by the developing countries since the mid-nineties. A commitment to this change has to begin in November at the latest ‘last hope’ intergovernmental climate change conference.
Suspended in our petrol and consumption driven bubble; we don’t seem to care too much about the impact which Climate Change is having and will continue to have on our futures, but surely we are not going to stand by and watch developing countries suffer the brunt of our mistakes. To do so would be the single greatest injustice to developing nations and their peoples since colonialism. And given that it was this same colonialism which drove the industrial revolution which marked the beginning of this mess, for those of us who will live to see it, that would be the ultimate irony.
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