This year Bangladesh has been devastated by flood, which has affected over 10 million people and took a toll of 363 lives. Rivers swelled and burst their banks after heavy monsoon rains, affecting a 25,000sqkm area, according to government figures issued on 15 August. Drowning, snakebites, electrocution and house collapses caused most of these deaths. Of the country's 64 districts, 39 were affected, 15 of them badly. Over 60,000 dwelling houses were seriously damaged. The flood is a natural calamity but it is also a result of climate change, which is created because of human interference with the environment, according to scientists.
Coming disasters
Bangladesh probably would be the worst victim of climate change. Available reports conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank (WB), Department for International Development (DFID), Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) indicate that most of the southern part of this country would be submerged due to the sea level rise by the next century.
Bangladesh's climate is changing and it is becoming worse day by day,. Flash floods, droughts, longer summer and shorter winter are some of the examples of our changing climate. Recent global reports on climate change put a special caution for Bangladesh where it advises Bangladesh to curb its carbon dioxide emission in order to avoid catastrophic disaster in future. Even in the famous Oscar winning Al-Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth, Bangladesh was highlighted amongst the most vulnerable countries, which would go under seawater by the next century.
Real danger ahead
According to a Guardian report, climate change will take the form floods, intrusion of salinity and droughts -- all of which will drastically affect crop productivity and food security. It will create riverbank erosion, sea water level rise and lack of fresh water in the coastal zones.
The report says, the prognosis is: more extreme floods in a country already devastated by floods; less food for the country in which half of the children already don't have enough to eat; and less clean water for the country where waterborne diseases are already responsible for 24 per cent of all deaths.
In addition, according to another forecast, were the Earth to warm by just one degree Celsius, 11 per cent of Bangladesh would be submerged, putting the lives of 55 million people in danger.
Rich nations' interest
However, does Bangladesh deserve these types of severe consequences? As a nation state, Bangladesh's contribution to the global warming is too little, but the consequences are massive. This misfortune for our country is the result of global politics. The rich nations, which contribute to global warming more than any parts of the world, should take the responsibility of the climate change and bear the cost for the poor nations like Bangladesh.
But recent trends of global summits on environment showcases that it is impossible to reach at a consensus globally to mitigate CO2 emissions and assist poor countries. There are examples that in the global summits, national interest plays key role on top of the global interest, which prohibits any effective outcome to combat climate change.
80 per cent vs 85 per cent
There are examples that due to the interest of powerful nations, agenda in global summits were altered. Not only that but also different agents like transnational corporations (TNC), international organisations (IO) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are playing effective role to uphold the interest of the rich countries which as a result is victimising poor nations like Bangladesh.
According to RAND, a US-based research organisation, 80 per cent of the global population now lives in less-developed nations and 85 per cent of the world's income is enjoyed by only 23 per cent of the world's population living in the North, whereas the other 77 per cent of the population in the South are left with only 23 per cent of the wealth.
In addition, according to another statistics, at present most of the global environmental problem caused by 20 per cent of the global population of the rich countries.
48 times more Co2
It is a hard fact that Bangladesh holds very low level of Co2 emission in comparison with rich countries such as the UK. According to a Guardian report, an average Briton produces 48 times more carbon dioxide than someone living Bangladesh.
Historically because of the industrial revolution and on going industrialisation in the northern hemisphere, nature became vulnerable by human intervention. On the other hand, in the late 70s and 80s when the poor south moved towards industrialisation, the pressures on the environment intensified further. Temperatures around the world started to increase because of the emission of carbon dioxide due to increasing economic activities around the world, which hampered the natural cycle like biodiversity etc.
Even though we are living in one earth and from common sense every nation states should act quickly to mitigate the problem of global warming, there are examples that nation states are failing to reach at an agreement to curb emissions globally.
National economic interest is one of the reasons which eventually blocking nation states to reach at a consensus to mitigate global warming. To curb emissions it is necessary to put some sort of restrictions on economic activities. The rich regions like the EU, USA argued at different global summits that developing countries must curb their pollution. The developing nations, on the other hand, argued that, they (developing nations) couldn't compromise environmental agenda with their economic growth.
South's argument
They further argued that rich nations became rich in expense of the environment; they (the rich) have the vast natural resources in comparison with the poorer countries. Moreover, not only that the rich have vast wealth but also the rich West also is governing global economy at the moment; so if someone is to pay the price for the climate change, the rich should pay the expenses, according to the South's argument. This line of debate has always been at the heart of global summits, which did not produce any result and ultimately victimises poor nations like ours.
It is a fact that we do not have that economically viable condition to mitigate pollution without sacrificing our economic growth. Historically, because of the phenomenon call globalisation, big textile companies of the West like Walmart, JC Penny, H&M, TESCO etc. came to Bangladesh for sourcing their product. This helped to grow a lot of textile industries around the country, which are among major contributors to the Co2 emissions at the moment.
Population explosion
On the other hand, the rising population around the country deforested huge area to make a living or to build a house. Bangladesh has a relatively small land area of 147,570sqkm in comparison with its huge population which is over 140 million -- and population is projected to become 191.1 million by 2030. More people in a small land means pressure on limited natural resources and rising economic activity that eventually is damaging the environment of Bangladesh. As a whole we become environmentally vulnerable. On the other hand, we cannot stop those textile and other factories, which are contributing to the emission.
