Bangladesh watches in horror as much of the nation gives way to sea

[donsu]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0705010817may02,1,7033000.story?ctrack=3&cset=true


The first refugees of global warming
Bangladesh watches in horror as much of the nation gives way to sea


-snip-

Bangladesh, which has 140 million people packed into an area a little smaller than Illinois, is one of the most vulnerable places to climate change. As the sea level slowly rises, this nation that is little more than a series of low-lying delta islands amid some of Asia's mightiest rivers -- the Ganges, Jamuna-Brahmaputra and Meghna -- is seeing saltwater creep into its coastal soils and drinking water. Farmers near the Bay of Bengal who once grew rice now are raising shrimp.

Notorious for its deadly cyclones, Bangladesh is likely to face increasingly violent storms as the weather warms and see surging seas carry saltwater farther and farther up the country's rivers, ruining soils, according to scientists.

-snip-

Bangladesh's capital today is home to a growing sea of landless rural migrants like Jaha Nura Begum, 35, who lives in a rickety bamboo hut perched on stilts over a fetid backwater of the Turag River. Her family and 20 others fled Bhola Island three years ago when "the river took all our land, and there was nothing," she said. Now her husband breaks bricks as a day laborer at a nearby kiln and "we only eat if we can find work."

-snip-

"A person victimized and displaced will not sit idle," he predicted. "There will be organized climate-displaced groups saying, 'Why should you hang onto your place when I've lost mine and you're the one who did this?'

"That," he said, "is not a pleasant scenario."
----------------------------


what's for dinner? how many does it have to feed?

[aquart]

1. Bangladesh doesn't have the weapons to take land.

But other nations will.

[Igel]

2. Don't need to have many weapons to get revenge. n/t

[Disturbed]

3. It was a big mistake to create Bangladesh.

The people in that region would have been better off if they stayed attached to the nation of India.

That is my off the top opinion. I could be incorrect.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And India is now building a barrier along the entire border

With a towering razor-wire fence and heavily armed guards who kill around 200 people every year, the fence along the India-Bangladesh border is ominous and sometimes dangerous.

The fence, which snakes its way through paddy fields about 140 metres inside India's notoriously porous border with Bangladesh, was built by the Indian government to prevent smuggling and illegal immigration.
...
The fence, which India is building inside the international boundary, already spans about half of the 4,100-km India-Bangladesh border.

The Indian government, which is spending $20 million on the project, plans to ultimately extend it along the entire frontier.

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-04-30T171002Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-296209-1.xml

[donsu]

8. I didn't know this - we need an active world map that shows

countries boundary walls, walls in cities, walls surrounding oil/gas, walls around radiation sites, etc.

with the whys and wherefores of each wall

a wall encyclopedia - a survivor's guide

[SoCalDem]

9. a fence won't stop desperate, hungry people n/t

[slackmaster]

5. The Dutch have done a great job of dealing with a similar situation

They have been dealing with low coastal lands and stormy seas for centuries.

There is little hope that enough can be done about global sea level rise and worsening tropical weather in time to help Bangladesh in a meaningful way. IMO they need to modernize, and fast. They have plenty of people, but they're going to need a lot of help with money and technology.

[soothsayer]

6. Dikes to the rescue!

[slackmaster]

7. Dykes on bikes will build dikes?

:shrug:

[sakabatou]

10. Not to mention the Cat in the Hat

who will bring green eggs and ham.

[formerrepuke]

11. There is a country which really *really* needs to adopt birth-control programs

...don't see it happening, though- more because of their own cultural issues than anything else.