Dr. Matiur Rahman & Shishir Reza :
Scientists have long warned that climate change is a consequence of human activity, which can lead to unusual phenomena, such as excessive rainfall.Much like the deadly heat wave in Canada in recent time and lightning storms across Germany, the shocking flash floods that have hit western Germanycan be traced directly to climate change.
Since the beginning of the industrial age, global temperatures have risen by 1.2 degrees Celsius, and scientists say temperatures will continue to rise unless the governments of the world’s industrialized nations significantly reduce carbon emissions.Now, following the German flood, Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on everyone to be determined to fight climate change.
Record amounts of rainfall have flooded and destroyed many villages and small towns and caused extensive damage of infrastructures. Emergency rescue teams are working to rescue stranded people and search for missing people. Heavy rains across northwestern Europe caused floods in several countries, including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. That being said, this is the worst flooding in Europe in decades.The worst-hit states in Germany were the Rhineland-Palatinate and the North Rhine-Westphalia.
Earlier many people have died as temperature continues to rise in the southern Pacific Northwest region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The village of Lytton in British Columbia recorded the highest temperature in Canadian history. The temperature in the area was recorded as 49.5 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit). Scientists said that this is an example of the fact that global temperature are rising at an unprecedented rate.Experts say that if the effects of climate change continue to increase, the rate of this type of flood, flash flood heat wave, wildfire and other natural disaster may also increase.
While a great deal of attention has been paid to the extreme heat and forest fires in North America and Canada in recent time, the shocking scenes of destruction across western Germany – as well as Luxembourg and Belgium – have ensured that the impact of climate change in Europe is now firmly in focus.
Bangladesh, a country of 170 million people, is one of the most at risk from the effects of climate change like floods, cyclones, droughts, tidal surges, tornadoes, earthquakes, river erosion, waterlogging, soil salinity, etc. Bangladesh, a country located in South Asia is the most affected country by climate change in the world. This climate change has a huge impact on the country’s agriculture, infrastructure, and way of life.
This is mainly because of the geographical location of the country, making it highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Bangladesh has a flat, low lying landscape, but lacks strong institutional setup. Climate change is becoming a very crucial issue to its citizens and government of Bangladesh. More than 80pc of the land is prone to flooding. About two thirds of Bangladesh’s population are engaged in agriculture, and climate change will affect these farmers in a bad way.
The World Bank warns Bangladesh of suffering climate change the worst by the year 2100. The report estimates that the sea level will rise by 3 feet. This will cause huge flooding, and the falling of crops in the country. It is also mentioned that this will cause poverty and inflation.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 stated to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. SDG 13 Targets are (i) Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries, (ii) Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning, (iii) Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning, (iv) Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the UNFCCC to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible, (v) Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and Small Island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities, and (vi) Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change. Thus, failure to address those targets will lead the nations more climate induced natural disaster.
Climate change is now the biggest threat to humans and all other organisms at the moment. Failure to take effective action now will have even more devastating effects.The deaths of thousands of people and other animals every year are already pointing the finger at it.Thus, for all nation it has now become a crucial issue to deal with this climate change to protect our loving planet.
(Dr. Matiur is Research Consultant, Human Development Research Centre and Shishir Reza is Environmental Analyst & Associate Member, Bangladesh Economic Association).
