The Views from Bangladesh (part 1)

Dipty Linda And James Pender are Advisors with The Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme. They are providing us with a direct view of the effects of climate change from Bangladesh

These days climate change is everywhere; in newspapers, on TV and within school curriculum, in fact even if you wanted too you can’t avoid the subject. Even in conversation if it’s been wet, windy, flooding, hot or cold somehow someone will blame the weather on climate change. Like it or hate the issue of climate change has gone mainstream, political leaders, business leaders and economists are even concerned; things have come a long way since the issue was promoted by left wing greenies in the late eighties and early nineties.

When I studied my degree in Environmental Studies in 1992 we were taught that Climate Change was a ‘possible’ problem, the details were unclear and perhaps we should do something to prevent it as a ‘safe precaution’. However, when I was back in the UK during 2006 shortly after the publishing of the Stern Report by a British economist on behalf of the British Government who astounded the world’s business community with his predictions on how climate change would affect the world’s economy, I realised things had changed, especially when later even oilmen like President George W. Bush endorsed the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who unequivocally stated that climate change was now happening . People were no longer talking about ‘IF’ for climatic changes had already been measured and the link to modern human behaviour was unmistakable, but ‘HOW’ it was and would impact on the earth.

It can be all a bit confusing hidden in scientific gobbledygook but basically while we know human caused climate change is now happening we still don’t know exactly what will happen, how soon and precisely where. However, it is known that climate change in the next hundred years will be significant and by the year 2100 best estimates predict between a 1.8˚ C and 4 ˚C rise in average global temperature, although it could possibly be as high as 6.4˚ C. For the average Brit that does not sound too dramatic as our ever changing weather could lead to ‘four seasons in day’ as they say in Scotland anyhow. We are unlikely therefore to notice this kind of temperature difference in terms of ‘feeling warmer’, but for food production for example, this will be serious as harvests depend directly on climatic conditions (temperature and rainfall patterns) and could lead to food yields being reduced by as much as a third in the tropics and subtropics.

In terms of the impact of climate change few places in the world will experience the range of effects and the severity of changes that will occur in Bangladesh, which will include: Average weather temperatures rising; more extreme hot and cold spells; rainfall being less when it is most needed for agriculture, yet more in the monsoon when it already causes floods; melting of glaciers in the source areas of Bangladesh’s rivers altering the hydrological cycle; more powerful tornados and cyclones; and sea level rise displacing communities, turning freshwater saline and facilitating more powerful storm surges. The impact will be intensified by the fact that Bangladesh is both one of the most populated and one of the poorest nations on earth.

Bishop Paul Sarkar and Bishop Michael S. Baroi of The Church of Bangladesh, are both very concerned and have been highlighting the plight of Bangladesh as they travel to different countries for various church meetings and the latter, speaking of his fears about climate change said: “It would be a serious catastrophe for my country and for the whole region if much of the land in Bangladesh disappears under the sea. I become frightened to think that my grandchildren will have no place to live on this planet earth. I really want to be sure that they, and their children after them, will be able to enjoy the beauty of my country that I have enjoyed, and be able to have enough land to live and enough land for food”.



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