Dhaka Already Bursting At Seams, Facing Likely Flood Of Climate Refugees In Near Future - AFP

[hatrack]

EDIT

Almost two years after the cyclone, the United Nations and aid groups say thousands of families like Shahana's have yet to receive assistance to rebuild their lives. In May this year, another cyclone, which killed 300 people and left 375,000 people homeless, also destroyed 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) of roads and embankments.

The country's leading climate change scientist says it is a sign of things to come. "It used to be that we would have a big cyclone every 15 to 20 years. We are getting a big one now every two or three years," said Atiq Rahman, who was on the UN's Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Nobel Prize-winning IPCC predicts 20 million Bangladeshis will be displaced by 2050 because of sea level rises and an increase of natural disasters caused by changing weather patterns.

The vast majority will be extremely poor and will likely end up in Dhaka's growing slums, according to Rahman, who has repeatedly called for rich nations to start opening their doors to those displaced by climate change. "There's no question about whether it's going to happen, it's a question of how we respond," Rahman said, with an eye on the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

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 World Bank estimates that the city will be home to more than 20 million by 2020. "At the end of the day people will have to move out of the country. No one wants to leave their home but at the end of the day it will happen. Dhaka is already under tremendous pressure," Rahman said.

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Climate_refugees_add_strain_to_seething_Bangladesh_capital_999.html

[Ilsa]

1. Dhaka, Bangladesh. I had to look it up in the article. 12 million? Geez.

What a horrible humanitarian crisis they have brewing.

[hatrack]

2. Almost incomprehensible - a population increase of nearly two orders of magnitude . . .

nt

[Bigmack]

4. Excuse me, but

if there war any "justice" in this strange world, that would/should read "....WE have brewing." Ms Bigmack

[Ilsa]

6. Yeah, I see what you mean. The poor folk on this planet are

at risk for extermination. The rich folk are content with it.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. And if there is a cyclone?

If it's on high ground, it gets overrun with refugees.

If it isn't, 12 million people are at risk for drowning and the dangers of post-storm infrastructure breakdown, including (but not limited to) cholera. New Orleans times one hundred, or more.

And if it's preceded by a drought, it will be even worse.

--d!

[Dead_Parrot]

7. If they get a direct hit, they're 15 shades of fucked

They're 4m/13ft "high": Technically it's inland, but as the land in question is the Ganges delta this means spit. Half of Dhaka was flooded out by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Bhola_cyclone">The Bhola cyclone in 1970, which rolled straight over them.



Total death toll was around half a million, and the poor response to this by the Pakistani government was one of the driving factors behind Bangladeshi independence.

What would happen if another Bhola hit today doesn't bear thinking about.

[Nederland]

5. We've seen this before

From 1842 to 1854 a huge number of people in Ireland died or migrated, only at a much quicker rate that what will happen to Bangladesh. As a result of the potato famines, Ireland lost a million people to emmigration and another a million people to starvation. That was 1/4 of it's population, which is significantly lower than the 12% Bangladesh's population that will be affected by global warming.

[One_Life_To_Give]

8. 1100 Inhabitants per kM^2, Bangladesh is busting at the seams

Climate change will make things worse. But the root cause appears to be overpopulation.