A NEW research reaffirmed that a fourth of Bangladesh would face coastal floods by 2050 because of climate change-induced sea level rise. Coastal flooding to be occurred every year if dykes are not built to hold back the water and half of the predicted area would go underwater permanently. The predictions made by New Jersey-based Climate Central were released globally on Tuesday. It said the climate change will trigger massive displacements and hence internal exodus to big cities that eventually strike political stability off-balance. The research is a conservative prediction based on the assumption that carbon emission would be cut rapidly over the next three decades while ice caps and glaciers would continue to melt at the present rate.
The research showed that by 2050 half of Bangladesh’s north-eastern region, nearly half of the central region, almost the entire south-western region and parts of Chattogram, would be flooded by seawater regularly. The Khulna division would face worse situation with almost the entire division, except Chuadanga district, to be inundated by seawater on a regular basis. In particular, the Sunderbans would be the worst-hit area. Bangladesh sits on a deltaic plain where sedimentation is still high, though the rate of it is falling rapidly because of withdrawal of river water in the upstream. The research warned that if carbon emission cuts remain moderate or continue to grow and Antarctic ice caps become unstable the implications would be far more serious. These assessments showed the potential of climate change to reshape cities, economies, coastlines, and entire global regions within our lifetimes.
The threats we have been facing from climate change are very real. Earlier, there was an assumption that it will take many more years to see the adverse impact. Now, we will have to face the crisis situation by 2050. Impact of climate change comes growing and not all of a sudden.
